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Oil for Food: the saga continues

The nine U.N. agencies involved in the oil-for-food program have agreed to pay Iraq about $40 million in oil proceeds they received in 2003 to finish their work but never spent, United Nations officials said Tuesday.
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Yet the Volcker probe promised to investigate the nine because of an "apparent lack of transparency and oversight" in the way they spent the money allotted to them.
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The nine agencies involved are: the U.N. Development Program; UNESCO; the World Food Program; the Food and Agriculture Program; the World Health Organization; U.N. Habitat; the U.N. Office for Project Services; the International Telecommunication Union; and the U.N. Children's Fund.

I hope this is only a first step in the right direction. As I said earlier, UN agencies covered their backs by carrying out external audits, but these were specifically instructed not to look at their purchasing offices' procedures and contracts and limit their inquiries to cash transactions and the like.

Oil for Food, United Nations