(May 20, 2004) The company hired to monitor aid under the UN oil-for-food program in Iraq failed to staff key checkpoints, used unauthorized subcontractors, and could not account for "massive discrepancies" between reported and actual shipments of aid, says UN audit.

(May 20, 2004) Companies from Australia, the US and other countries paid a secret commission to Saddam Hussein’s government to secure contracts under the United Nations’ oil-for-food programme, Iraqi and occupation officials said yesterday.

(May 20, 2004) The independent panel investigating alleged corruption in the multibillion-dollar UN oil-for-food program in Iraq said Thursday it was pursuing claims of misconduct by UN staff and seeking access to Iraqi records.

(May 19, 2004) World Bank president James Wolfensohn has dismissed United States allegations that billions of dollars of bank funding was misused as “frivolous.”

(May 17, 2004) Iraq’s political leaders are sparring with the American occupation administration over who should investigate possible official and corporate corruption in the United Nations oil-for-food program.

(May 13, 2004) The world’s obsession with the Iraqi prison abuse story has obscured what could be one of the most expensive scandals in the history of the world: the United Nations’ Oil for Food program.

(May 10, 2004) The oil-for-food program for Iraq was the largest humanitarian-aid program ever undertaken by the United Nations. It appears it also provided the largest opportunity for corruption.

(May 10, 2004) President Bush wants investigators to get to the bottom of the oil-for-food scandal at the United Nations, which National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice says may have originated in a “corrupt underworld.”