Volcker '49 calls for robust U.N. reform

The United Nations has not done enough to reform its practices since the oil-for-food scandal, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker '49 told a Dodds Auditorium audience Thursday night.

Volcker chaired an independent committee investigating the mid-1990s program, which allowed Iraq to sell its oil in exchange for food and medicine.

Though the United Nations has devised an ethical code and new reporting standards, it has not embraced the extensive reforms the committee recommended to maintain the legitimacy of the body, Volker said.

Volker was on campus to discuss the new book "Good Intentions Corrupted: The Oil-for-Food Scandal and the threat to the U.N.," for which he wrote the introduction. Jeffrey Meyer, one of the book's coauthors and senior counsel to the inquiry committee, also spoke. The lecture was sponsored by the Wilson School.

"It was a full blown investigation of an organization that was not used to being investigated," Meyer said.

Though the committee had no way of forcing people to comply with their requests, they were able to conduct more than 1,200 interviews, obtain more than 13 million documents and look through Secretary General Kofi Annan's computer, Meyer said.

"It amazes me the kind of things you can find out when you have access to telephone calls and emails," Volcker said.

The group calculated that Saddam Hussein illegitimately received nearly $2 billion through kickbacks and illegal surcharges, and was able to smuggle large amount of oil, Meyer said.

The committee even found evidence that Annan's son was on the payroll of a Swiss bank contracting with the United Nations, a fact that was covered up. There was no evidence that Annan was aware of the situation.

To prevent such corruption in the future, Volker and Meyer recommended that an outside body audit U.N. programs and that a chief administrative officer (CAO) position be created at the organization.

Though the CAO position is currently included in the secretary general's responsibilities, "secretary generals are incompetent chief administrative officers," Volcker said, adding that they already have extensive responsibilities. "[The secretary is] the chief diplomat of the U.N., and that is a full time job."

The view that such increases in oversight divert power from the egalitarian General Assembly makes reform harder to implement, Volker said. He added that he is a believer in the importance of the United Nations, but that member nations will have to come to realize that it can only be effective if administrative reform is undertaken.

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Though their inquiry was limited to the oil-for-food program, "There is no doubt that many of the weaknesses we found ... were systemic," he said.

Both Volker and Meyer said this is an important time for the United Nations, especially because a new secretary general will soon replace Annan. Volcker complained that too few candidates list administrative reform as a primary interest. Though one candidate did highlight the need for such reforms, Volker joked, "I'm sure he will get the fewest votes."