Watchdog group urges UN to keep oil-for-food data

[deadparrot]

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - An anti-corruption coalition on Monday urged the United Nations to keep all evidence compiled in a probe of the scandal ridden oil-for-food program in Iraq to help prosecutors build cases against corrupt companies and officials in 66 countries.

The oil-for-food investigation, led by former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, is disbanding at the end of the month with much of the evidence it gathered slated to be shipped back to Iraq.

"It defies belief that a critical and hard-won body of evidence could be so quickly handed back, making it inaccessible to prosecutors and helping shield the criminals from justice," Transparency International chairman Peter Eigen said in a letter sent to U.N. Secretary-General
Kofi Annan.

The panel last month issued a report naming 2,200 companies in 66 countries accused of steering $1.8 billion in bribes and kickbacks through the program to Saddam Hussein's government.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/iraq_probe_documents_dc