‘Oil-for-Food’ Program to Fund Probe

Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Wednesday that the United Nations would use $30 million in revenue from its Iraq “oil-for-food” program to pay the initial bill for the independent investigation of corruption allegations in the program.

In a letter to the U.N. Security Council, Annan said money for the probe -- headed by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker -- would come from an account earmarked to pay U.N. administrative and operational costs for the program.

Volcker said in August that he didn’t know how long it would take to complete the inquiry, but estimated it would cost at least $30 million in the next year.

The United Nations paid several million dollars in the investigation’s initial costs from its regular budget, to which all 191 U.N. member states contribute.

U.N. associate spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the regular budget, now about $1.4 billion annually, could not absorb the inquiry’s cost.

The oil-for-food program was launched by the Security Council to help Iraqis cope with U.N. sanctions imposed after Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Saddam Hussein’s regime could sell unlimited quantities of oil provided the money went primarily to buy humanitarian goods and pay reparations to victims of the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

Last week, a report by Charles A. Duelfer, the top U.S. arms inspector in Iraq, alleged that the Iraqi government manipulated the program, pocketing billions of dollars.