India to probe FM’s links to Iraqi oil-for-food scandal
NEW DELHI, Nov 3: The Indian government on Thursday promised to probe reports that its foreign minister and the ruling Congress party secretly benefited from shady deals linked to the United Nations’ oil-for-food programme for Iraq.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s office described as “unverified” references to Foreign Minister Natwar Singh and the Congress party in the Oct 27 report by former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, who probed the scandal.
“The government is deeply concerned about the unverified references made in the Volcker Committee report to the Congress party and Singh... The Volcker committee report, as it stands today, is insufficient to arrive at any adverse or definitive conclusion,” said a statement by the premier’s media advisor Sanjaya Baru.
“Therefore, the government is determined to go to the root of the matter and establish the truth or otherwise of these references.
“The matter is under the serious consideration of the government and a decision will be announced shortly,” it added.
The Volcker report said it found that Saddam Hussein’s regime manipulated the programme to extract about 1.8 billion dollars in surcharges and bribes, while an inept UN headquarters failed to exert administrative control.
The government’s statement came amid rising demands from opposition parties as well as allies of Singh’s Congress party to make a clean breast ahead of parliament’s winter session starting next month.
The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) called for the foreign minister’s resignation after Volcker named him as a non-contractual beneficiary of four million barrels of oil allotted to a firm named Masefield AG.—AFP
