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Benon Sevan: No money has been paid

10:36 2005-03-24

Leading members of the United Nations Security Council yesterday
demanded to know why the UN secretariat had offered to use Iraqi oil
revenues to pay the legal fees of Benon Sevan, the disgraced former
head of Iraq’s oil-for-food programme.

The UN said on Tuesday that it had promised to pay Mr Sevan reasonable
legal fees to ensure his co-operation with the Volcker Commission
(IIC), which is investigating allegations of fraud and mismanagement
in the multibillion dollar programme. It had proposed to cover the
costs from a special account funded by Iraqi oil revenues to administer
the oil-for-food programme, informs FT News.

Iraq and the United States questioned on Wednesday why the United
Nations offered to use Iraqi oil money to pay legal fees of the
U.N. official in charge of the scandal-tainted oil-for-food program.

At issue is a U.N. announcement on Tuesday saying it had offered to
pay Benon Sevan, the former head of the program, reasonable legal
fees to ensure his cooperation with a probe conducted by Paul Volcker,
former head of the Federal Reserve.

No money has yet been paid to Sevan. The United Nations said it
was questioning some of his reimbursement claims and would not pay
anything after Feb. 3 when the Volcker commission accused Sevan of
steering oil contracts to an Egyptian trader.

Mark Malloch Brown, the new U.N. chief of staff, told a news
conference the decision to pay the fees was made because of Sevan’s
responsibilities as head of the program and before any allegations
were made against him.

The Volcker commission also disputed a U.N. statement that it had
offered to pay legal fees to Sevan to get his cooperation, saying
Sevan was permitted to have an attorney because of the seriousness
of the allegations against him, publishes Reuters.

NR