SCANDAL IN U.N. HONCHO'S PAST

New York Post ^ | 10/25/04 | NILES LATHEM

[conservative in nyc]

Benon Sevan, the head of the Iraq oil-for-food program, presided over another U.N. scandal earlier in his career in which millions of dollars earmarked for reconstruction of war-torn Afghanistan were squandered and disappeared, The Post has learned.

But despite U.N. audits that discovered widespread waste, fraud and abuse of the Afghan relief program in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the well-connected Sevan was never held accountable.

Instead, according to his official U.N. biography, he received a series of promotions within the U.N. Secretariat after serving five years in Afghanistan and Pakistan, leading eventually to his longtime friend and colleague Kofi Annan naming him to head the enormous and complex Iraq oil-for-food program in 1997.

"A lot of people around the U.N. were very surprised he got the oil-for-food program given his track record with the Afghan program.

"He just seemed to float upward in the system," said a former U.N. diplomat who saw the secret audit reports.

Sevan is now a central figure in the Iraq oil-for-food scandal, presiding over a program in which Saddam Hussein used a series of kickback scams to rip off $11 billion and use the money to bust sanctions and fund weapons programs.

Sevan has also been accused in recent reports by CIA weapons inspector Charles Duelfer and the new Iraqi government of accepting sweetheart oil deals from Saddam that netted him more than $1.3 million in illegal profits.

[conservative in nyc]

Why am I not shocked that these unaccountable U.N. bureaucrats have their hands in the cookie jar?

BTW - Sevan is hiding in his home country of Cyprus and couldn't be reached for comment.

[Anti-Bubba182]

"..But despite U.N. audits that discovered widespread waste, fraud and abuse of the FILL IN THE BLANK relief program in the late FILL IN THE BLANK and early FILL IN THE BLANK, the well-connected FILL IN THE BLANK was never held accountable..."

They really ought to use the UN as a meeting hall and diplomatic center and not try to make a World Government from it. The place has worse corruption than Tammany Hall and always will. I'd have more faith in it if their diplomats had to pay as much as a parking ticket.

[Alien Gunfighter]

If the Useless Nations is thinking of crowning Bill Clinton as their 'Dear Leader", they probably don't worry too awful much about people with scandalous pasts.

I wonder how Marc Rich is doing these days.

[GailA]

MASTER LIST UN OIL/SEX FOR FOOD SCANDALS