[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 88 (Wednesday, June 23, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7221-S7223]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
OIL-FOR-FOOD PROGRAM
Mr. ENSIGN. Mr. President, I rise to speak about the Oil-for-Food
scandal. I do so because I have been told that high ranking officials
at the State Department and Paul Volcker, who is heading up the U.N.
investigation, believe Senators are not personally committed to gaining
access to all relevant documents, including U.N. audits. That is not
true.
A bipartisan group of Senators, including ranking members from the
Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees, wrote to Mr. Bremer in
Iraq asking him to secure the Oil-for-Food documents.
I ask unanimous consent that the letter be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
U.S. Senate,
Washington, DC, June 9, 2004.
Hon. L. Paul Bremer, III,
Administrator, Coalition Provisional Authority, Baghdad,
Iraq.
Dear Mr. Bremer: We are writing to inquire about the status
of documents relating to the United Nations ``Oil-for-Food''
Program (OFF Program), and express our concerns about recent
developments that could jeopardize American interests with
respect to those documents.
The Section 2007 report submitted to Congress in April
states that you have ordered ``all relevant records in Iraq
ministries be inventoried and protected so that they can be
made available'' for certain investigations into the OFF
Program. We also understand that the Coalition Provisional
Authority (CPA) has recently entered into a Memorandum of
Understanding with the Independent Inquiry Committee (IIC)
regarding the sharing of documents and information relating
to the OFF Program.
Our concern is that all documents related to the OFF
Program be secured not only for the IIC and the Iraqi Board
of Supreme Audit (BSA), but also for investigations conducted
by Congressional committees. Accordingly, we request that the
CPA work with the Inspector General's Office of the
Department of Defense (DoD IG) to secure a copy of all
documents that are being gathered for the BSA and the IIC
investigations. Once such documents are secured, a complete
set of documents relevant to the OFF Program should be
delivered within sixty (60) days or no later than August 31,
2004, to the General Accounting Office for further delivery,
upon request, to any Congressional committee of competent
jurisdiction. Please identify by no later than June 11, 2004,
a person at the CPA and at DoD IG responsible for securing
the documents in response to this request.
We are sure you will agree that these documents should be
secured for all investigations into the OFF Program, whether
in Iraq or the United States. In light of the recent
dissolution of the Iraqi Governing Council, the formation of
a new Iraqi government ahead of schedule, and the rapidly-
approaching June 30th turnover date, we are concerned that
American access to such documents will be jeopardized.
Accordingly, we believe that the documents should be secured,
duplicated, and delivered to DoD IG prior to June 30, 2004.
Sincerely,
Norm Coleman,
Carl Levin,
Saxby Chambliss,
Joseph R. Biden, Jr.,
Lindsey Graham,
John Ensign.
Mr. ENSIGN. Congressional investigators have an interest in making
sure those documents are available and accessible. A subpoena has been
served on BNP by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Chairman
Coleman and the ranking Democrat, Senator Levin, have also sent letters
seeking Oil-for-Food documents to
[[Page S7222]]
the State Department and the General Accounting Office.
An amendment to the Defense bill, which would help Congress to
conduct its own inquiries into the Oil-for-Food Program was passed
unanimously. We want access to those documents. We wish the Volcker
panel well; however, we are not going to abandon the duty of this
Congress to conduct proper oversight or subcontract that role to an
international body. The stakes are much too high.
We now believe that Saddam Hussein, corrupt U.N. officials, and
corrupt well-connected countries were the real benefactors for the Oil-
for-Food Program. They profited from illegal oil shipments, financial
transactions, kickbacks, and surcharges, and allowed Saddam Hussein to
build up his armed forces and live in the lap of luxury.
The evidence in this far-reaching scandal tells an unbelievable
story. Our own U.S. General Accounting Office estimates that Saddam
Hussein siphoned off $4.4 billion through oil sale surcharges. Saddam
Hussein also demanded kickbacks on the humanitarian relief side from
suppliers which amounted to 10 to 20 percent on many contracts. Saddam
used this revenue to rebuild Iraq's military capabilities, to maintain
lavish palaces, buy loyalty, oppress his people, and perhaps
financially support terrorism.
And as Claude Haknes-Drielsma, an IGC consultant investigating the
scandal, testified, the secret payments . . . ``provided Saddam Hussein
and his corrupt regime with a convenient vehicle through which he
bought support, internationally by bribing political parties,
companies, and journalists . . . This secured the cooperation and
support of countries that included members of the Security Council of
the United Nations.''
The United Nations should be embarrassed. What resulted from the
goodwill gesture was international scandal, corruption at the highest
levels, and suffering Iraqi citizens--not exactly a model U.N. program.
Tasked by the international community to deny Saddam Hussein the
ability to rebuild his military apparatus while providing humanitarian
needs, the United Nations allowed the corrupt to become richer and
innocent Iraqis to be oppressed. Today we have a chance to rectify that
injustice. We must demand that the United Nations cooperate completely
with efforts to extrapolate the truth from this scandal and punish the
guilty.
Unfortunately, that does not appear to be happening, as William
Safire notes in a recent column entitled ``Tear Down This UN
Stonewall.'' He talks about how Paul Volcker's first choices for
staffing the U.N.'s own Oil-for-Food--
. . . were turned off not just by the lack of subpoena or
oath-requiring power . . . but by an inadequate budget to dig
into the largest financial rip-off in history. As a result,
after nearly three months, a foot-dragging bureaucracy has
successfully frustrated the independent committee dependent
on it.
We know that officials acting on behalf of Benon Sevan, the executive
director of the Oil-for-Food Program for the United Nations, who is
personally implicated in the scandal, are asking contractors not to
release documents relating to the program to congressional
investigators without first getting U.N. authorization. We know the
U.S. has asked for copies of the U.N. internal audit reports on this
program, and the U.N. denied our request. I will include an exchange of
letters to that effect in the Record.
It was reported recently that the head of the U.N.'s own inspector
general's office himself is now being investigated by the United
Nations. The U.N. should be more interested in bringing the truth to
light than trying to protect its tattered reputation and its corrupt
officials. I hope the Volcker panel gets the tools it needs from the
U.N. to do a thorough investigation of the Oil-for-Food Program. The
Volcker panel work does not obviate the need for the U.S. Congress to
conduct its own investigation.
My amendment ensures that the Oil-for-Food documents in Iraq are
secured before the June 30 handover and that copies are brought to the
United States. Right now it is unclear what will happen to those
documents following the June 30 handover. The amendment also requires
U.S. agencies to provide relevant congressional committees access to
Oil-for-Food documents. Additionally, it calls on the U.S. to use its
voice and vote to get access to U.N. Oil-for-Food audits and core
documents.
Lastly, it mandates a GAO review of the Oil-for-Food Program. Under
the Helms-Biden U.N. reform legislation which was signed into law, as
this amendment makes clear, we believe the GAO should have access to
U.S. documents relating to the Oil-for-Food Program.
We in the Congress have a choice to make. We could do nothing and
allow the word ``humanitarianism'' to be the new code word for
corruption and scandal from here on out, or we can stand up and make
the United Nations rightfully accountable for the corruption that has
harmed innocent Iraqis.
The answer is clear: We must act.
The U.N. is broken. If the Security Council is to function, there
cannot be questions as to whether members are more interested in lining
their pockets than preserving security. We have to make sure Iraqi
government officials get a clear message that the corruption and
kickbacks of the Saddam Hussein regime--potentially aided and abetted
by U.N. officials--will no longer be tolerated.
I thank my colleagues for helping to craft this amendment. Lindsay
Graham took the lead in achieving this consensus. Senators Chambliss,
Coleman, Lugar, Kyl, Enzi, and the majority leader all made important
contributions, as did the minority, in finalizing the language. This
was truly a collaborative process.
I ask unanimous consent that the letters I mentioned earlier be
printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
United States Representative for United Nations
Management and Reform,
New York, NY, May 10, 2004.
Mr. Dileep Nair,
Office for Internal Oversight Services, the United Nations,
New York, NY.
Dear Mr. Nair: The U.S. Mission requests the following
documentation/information regarding the Oil-for-Food
Programme:
--The 55 OIOS internal reviews, or audits, of aspects of
the OFF program;
--All bank statements for the OFF escrow account at BNP-
Paribas;
--All Oil Overseer reports previous to October 2001;
--Copies of all Customs Reports from the UN's Office of
Iraq Programme (OIP) to the 661 Committee that contain
pricing reviews with notes of concern about possible
overpricing.
Please provide these documents by 14 May 2004. If this is
not possible, please provide a written explanation, including
when we might expect to receive such documentation.
Thank you for your assistance.
Sincerely,
Patrick Kennedy.
____
United Nations
Internal Oversight Services,
New York, NY, May 12, 2004.
Reference: OUSG-04-370
Ambassador Patrick F. Kennedy,
Representative for United Nations Management, United States
Mission to the United Nations, New York, NY.
Dear Ambassador Kennedy: I refer to your letter to me of 10
May, as well as your previous letters of 20 April and 4 May,
seeking documents relating to the Oil-for-Food Programme.
As you know, the Secretary-General has established an
independent inquiry into allegations relating to the
Programme, chaired by Mr. Paul Volcker. You would also be
aware that Mr. Volcker has asked the Secretary-General to
ensure that all relevant documents are secured solely for the
Inquiry's use, and that, on 6 May, Mr. Volcker issued a
statement saying that the Inquiry Committee believes non-
public documents related to the Programme should not be
released during the current preliminary stage of the
Inquiry--though it will ``consider appropriate disclosure''
at a later stage, as the investigation proceeds.
As the internal reviews and audits of the Programme carried
out by this Office, bank statements of the escrow account and
letters sent to contractors, come in the category of ``non-
public'' documents, these cannot be disclosed at the moment.
On the other hand, the reports of the Oil Overseers and of
the Customs Reports have already been provided to the United
States government in its capacity as a member of the 661
Committee.
Yours sincerely,
Dileep Nair,
Under-Secretary General.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia is recognized.
Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I may proceed
for no more than 3 minutes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
[[Page S7223]]
Without objection, it is so ordered.
____________________