Food for Oil Program - UN Program - PDF

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d06330.pdf

aka: How to murder 1,000,000 people legally.




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The Oil for Food program was flawed from the outset because it did not have sufficient controls to prevent the former Iraqi regime from manipulating the program. Internal controls, if properly designed and implemented, can provide reasonable—although never absolute—assurance that program goals will be met and fraud will be minimized. Despite the risks inherent in allowing Iraqi government control over the contracting process and expanding the program beyond its initial emergency mandate, the Security Council and the Secretariat did not establish a system of internal controls, including timely and comprehensive risk assessment and effective control activities and monitoring. Moreover, fragmentation of responsibilities led to an environment in which no single unit or person was accountable for program management, monitoring, and oversight. The Oil for Food program was arguably the largest sanctions and humanitarian program in its scope, complexity, and structure that the UN had undertaken. Given the enormity of the undertaking, internationally accepted internal control standards should have been applied throughout the course of the program. Such standards would have helped ensure that the program was effectively and efficiently managed and that the Iraqi people received the intended benefits from the proceeds of its government’s oil sales.