Ashish's Niti: Natwar Singh and Congress party named as beneficiaries by the Volcker Report on the Oil-for-Food Scandal

Natwar Singh and Congress party named as beneficiaries by the Volcker Report on the Oil-for-Food Scandal

October 29, 2005

Link: The Hindu : Front Page : Volcker Report names Natwar Singh and Congress Party as "beneficiaries".

New Delhi: K. Natwar Singh, India's External Affairs Minister, as well as the Congress Party are listed in the recently released report of the Volcker Committee as "non-contractual beneficiaries" of Iraqi oil sales in 2001 under the United Nations Oil-for-Food Programme. The contracting company in both cases is named as Masefield AG.
The fifth and final report of the Independent Inquiry Committee, appointed by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in April 2004 to investigate the administration and management of the Oil-for-Food Programme, is available at www.iic-offp.org.

Mr. Singh is shown in Table 3 of the Report as the non-contractual "beneficiary" in connection with 4 million barrels of oil allotted to Masefield AG, the contracting company, which actually lifted 1.936 million barrels out of this. The phase in which the oil was allocated is shown as 9.

In addition, the Congress Party is listed in the same table as the non-contractual "beneficiary" in connection with 4 million barrels allotted in phases 10, 11, 12 and 13. Out of this allocation, 1.001 million barrels were lifted. In this case, Masefield AG is shown as the contracting company in phase 10 (during which the 1.001 million barrels were lifted), but no name of the contracting company is mentioned for the subsequent phases.

The table also lists Reliance Petroleum Limited as a "beneficiary" from an allocation of 19 million barrels of oil to Alcon Petroleum Limited, the contracting company, which lifted 15.780 million barrels in phases 9, 10 and 11.

A yet to be identified Bhim Singh from India is also listed in the table as a "beneficiary," with no contracting company mentioned by name. In Bhim Singh's case, 7.300 million barrels were allocated but nothing of this was lifted, according to the table.

You can read the Volcker Report here! So much for No War for Oil! Remember it was considered bad for a company to lobby for Iraq Reconstruction contract and to profit from the war. Many of us knew that much of the opposition to liberation of Iraq was rifed with hypocrisy but the extent of corruption is coming to light only now. Looks like the removal of Saddam Hussein destroyed a whole ecosystem.

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