The UN Secretary General assured me that the organization's functionaries would be cooperative during investigation and that the commission would get full access to all related archives and documents, Volker said The decision on conducting independent investigation into corruption within the program "Oil for Food" was taken by Koffi Annan on March 26 and was subsequently supported by the Security Council. Apart from Volker the commission includes former prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia Richard Goldstone of South Africa and Mark Pieth, Swiss expert on money-laundering in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The Program "Oil for Food" was the biggest financial project in the history of the UN. From 1996 to 2003 it allowed Iraq to use a portion of its petroleum revenues to purchase food and medicines. Over the period of the program's existence the revenues from the sales of the Iraqi oil amounted to $65 billion out of which $46 billion was used for the humanitarian needs.
In mid-March the US Congress' audit agency released a report which said that in the course of the implementation of this project at least $10 billion was embezzled. Among those directly involved in the financial fraud the report mentioned the program's executive director Benon Sevan and Koffi Annan's son Kojo.
