An adviser to the Iraqi Governing Council yesterday accused U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer of deliberately slowing the IGC’s probe into a $10 billion kickback scandal that is bound to embarrass the United Nations.
A two-month delay while Mr. Bremer’s coalition officials put an auditing contact out to tender may have allowed the destruction or loss of vital evidence, adviser Claude Hankes-Drielsma testified on Capitol Hill.
Mr. Hankes-Drielsma was the lead witness in a hearing into suspected bribes, kickbacks and smuggling in the U.N. oil-for-food program being conducted by the House Government Reform national security, emerging threats and international relations subcommittee chaired by Rep. Christopher Shays, Connecticut Republican.
In New York, a three-member panel led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker opened an investigation after a unanimous vote by the U.N. Security Council to authorize the probe.
Mr. Hankes-Drielsma testified in Washington that Mr. Bremer had told the IGC that “he would not release funds … to meet the cost of the investigation unless the work was put out to tender.”
He said Mr. Bremer took the stand even though KPMG — the accounting firm selected by the council’s finance committee — is the acknowledged world leader in forensic auditing and had sent a team to Baghdad.
“Time is of the essence,” Mr. Hankes-Drielsma said. “Evidence can and may be lost. … I expect shredders are working round-the-clock at this very moment.”
Mr. Hankes-Drielsma would not speculate on Mr. Bremer’s motives, but a source close to the investigation said, “There can be no legitimate cause for delay given the importance of this issue to Iraq and the whole world.
“The only reason must be that they did not want the report out before the hand-over” of power to an interim Iraqi authority on June 30.
But a Bush administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity dismissed that contention.
“What Bremer is trying to do is to make sure that there are appropriate standards, professionalism and accountability in any investigation,” the source said. “You have to practice what you preach.”
Mr. Volcker’s panel, like the KPMG team in Baghdad, will pore through hundreds of pages of U.N. contracts awarded over the years to international companies that did business with Saddam Hussein’s regime.
Although diplomats have known for years that Iraq was smuggling oil via neighbors, and suspected the regime of demanding kickbacks for contracts, new charges surfaced last January in the Iraqi newspaper Al-Mada.
The newspaper published a list of about 270 people and companies from more than 46 countries suspected of profiting from Iraqi oil sales — including the man in charge of the U.N. office that administered the program, Benon Savan.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan opened an internal inquiry in February but canceled it in March to allow the broader, independent examination.
Emphasizing that the accusations were being taken seriously, Mr. Annan said yesterday, “The organization will take whatever steps may be appropriate to address the issues raised by the inquiry.”
• William Reilly in New York contributed to this article.
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