UN orders Iraq corruption inquiry

The UN Security Council has approved an investigation into reports of massive corruption in the UN-administered oil-for-food programme in Iraq.

The now-defunct scheme was designed to help Iraq buy humanitarian goods and ease the impact of sanctions.

But an adviser to the Iraqi Governing Council told the BBC it allowed Saddam Hussein to buy influence abroad.

He said the former Iraqi leader spent billions of dollars bribing foreign businesses, journalists and officials.

The oil-for-food programme provided Saddam Hussein with a convenient vehicle through which he bought support internationally," Claude Hankes-Drielsma, a British adviser to the US-backed Governing Council, told the BBC's Today Programme..

He said a total of $10bn was creamed off by the former Iraqi regime, either in bribes or illegal sales of oil.

One leading source of cash was a 10% mark-up on every invoice under the programme, he said.

The programme was the largest humanitarian operation ever undertaken by the United Nations and was meant to help civilians.

Recent media reports have accused individuals and companies from more than 40 countries, including a senior UN official, of being involved in corruption and bribery in connection with the oil sales.

From the above example it shows that the fight against corruption is not a simple one. That’s why in the case of Tanzanian we have always say that it is the ministers, members of parliament and government officials who are engaged in corruption. This UN corruption case give a vivid example that it is always so.

Corruption is everywhere in this world and its hard to uproot it. Therefore we have to learn to live with our corruption in Tanzania.

Its hard to uproot corruption in Tanzania!