Next Volcker oil-for-food report on UN due Monday
By Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 5 (Reuters) – The next interim report on the
scandal-tainted oil-for-food program for Iraq will be released on
Monday, a day earlier than planned, the U.N appointed panel announced
on Friday.

The main reason for the new date apparently was a lengthy statement
and defense on Thursday from the lawyer for Benon Sevan, the former
head of the $67 billion humanitarian program for Iraq. The attorney,
Eric Lewis, said Sevan would be accused of getting kickbacks, which
he vehemently denied.

The change of date was e-mailed to the media by the Independent
Inquiry Committee (IIC), headed by Paul Volcker, former chairman of
the U.S. Federal Reserve.

“Due to the high volume of information and misleading speculation
in the public domain concerning the ongoing investigation into the
United Nations oil-for-food program, the IIC will release to the
public an interim report on the new date of Monday, August 8,” the
Volcker panel said.

The report, the third to date on the program, is meant to tie up
“loose ends” from prior surveys, the statement said. Another report,
perhaps early in September, will provide a broad review of U.N.
management of the program and a final report a month letter would
concentrate on outside contractors.

A committee spokesman said earlier the report on Monday would focus
on Sevan and on Alexander Yakovlev, a senior purchasing officer,
involved in awarding a series of U.N. contracts for Iraq. But it is
only expected to mention U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in passing.

The Volcker panel was commissioned by Annan to examine charges of
corruption in the program, the largest ever handled by the world body,
that began in December 1996 and ended in 2003. The plan was designed
to ease the impact on ordinary Iraqis of U.N. sanctions, imposed in
mid-1990s after Baghdad’s troops invaded Kuwait.

08/05/05 19:29 ET