UNITED NATIONS (AP) – In a devastating assessment of the UN oil-for-food programme in Iraq, investigators strongly criticised Secretary-General Kofi Annan, his deputy and the Security Council for allowing Saddam Hussein to bilk US$10.2 billion (euro8.2 billion) as a result of the giant humanitarian operation.

The Independent Inquiry Committee’s definitive report on the oil-for-food programme said those managing the programme – both UN member states and the world body’s staff – failed the ideals of the United Nations, ignoring clear evidence of corruption and waste that flourished after it was created in 1996.

“The inescapable conclusion from the committee’s work is that the United Nations organization needs thorough reform – and it needs it urgently,” the report said.

Former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, who was the chairman of the investigation, came to the Security Council to present the report at a meeting attended by Annan.

The committee said the instances of corruption that reached the top of the programme reflect the absence of a strong institutional ethic in an organisation that should exemplify the highest global standards because of its “unique and crucial role”.

Yet it also acknowledged that the programme was partly successful, providing minimal standards of nutrition and health care for millions of Iraqis trying to cope with tough UN sanctions imposed after Saddam Hussein’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait. It also helped keep Saddam from obtaining weapons of mass destruction, the report said.

One of the largest humanitarian programmes in history, oil for food was a lifeline for 90 per cent of the country’s population of 26 million. But Saddam was allowed to choose the buyers of Iraqi oil and the sellers of humanitarian goods, and used that power to curry favour by awarding oil contracts to former government officials, activists, journalists and UN officials who opposed the sanctions.

The report, more than 800 pages long, was highly critical of the almost total lack of oversight of the program by the secretary-general and Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette, who was the direct boss of Benon Sevan, the programme’s executive director who is now being investigated for allegedly accepting kickbacks.