NEW DELHI, Oct 29: Indian Foreign Minister Kunwar Natwar Singh has been named by investigators as a beneficiary of the United Nations oil-for-food programme for Iraq, the Hindu newspaper reported on Saturday.
Mr Singh, currently in Frankfurt, promptly issued an angry denial, calling it a campign to tarnish his image and that of the Congress party, which has also been named as a benefeciary.
The Volcker committee named Mr Singh and Congress separately as ‘non-contractual beneficiaries’ of Iraqi oil sales in 2001 under the United Nations oil-for-food programme. The contracting company in both cases was named as Masefield AG.
The fifth and final report of the Independent Inquiry Committee (IIC), appointed by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in April last year to investigate the administration and management of the oil programme, is available at www.iic-offp.org.
Mr Singh has been shown in Table 3 of the report as the non-contractual ‘beneficiary’ in connection with four 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, The Hindu said.
In addition, the Congress Party has been listed in the same table as a non-contractual ‘beneficiary’ in connection with four 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 was mentioned for the subsequent phases.
The table also listed India’s Reliance Petroleum as a ‘beneficiary’ from an allocation of 19 million barrels of oil to Alcon Petroleum, the contracting company, which lifted 15.780 million barrels in phases 9, 10 and 11.
“Under the Programme,” the Volcker committee report says, ‘the Government of Iraq sold $64.2 billion of oil to 248 companies. In turn, 3,614 companies sold $34.5 billion of humanitarian goods to Iraq... The report illustrates the manner in which Iraq manipulated the programme to dispense contracts on the basis of political preference and to derive illicit payments from companies that obtained oil and humanitarian goods contracts.”
“Several of the tables,” the report explains, “identify specific illicit payments made in connection with oil and humanitarian contracts under the programme. Oil surcharges were paid in connection with the contracts of 139 companies, and humanitarian kickbacks were paid in connection with the contracts of 2,253 companies.”
“I have seen The Hindu report which quotes the Volker report on Iraq’s oil-for-food programme as having listed my name as one of the beneficiaries along with that of the Congress Party, in its annexure. I am deeply shocked and outraged by these allegations which are baseless and untrue,” Mr Singh said in a statement released by the Indian foreign ministry.