In a scathing final report documenting massive corruption in the UN oil-for-food programme, investigators accused more than 2,200 companies and prominent politicians of colluding with Saddam Hussein’s regime.

IN A devastating assessment of the United Nations oil-for-food programme in Iraq, investigators yesterday strongly criticised Secretary General Kofi Annan, his deputy and the Security Council for allowing Saddam Hussein to bilk €10 billion as a result of the giant humanitarian operation.

In a devastating assessment of the UN oil-for-food programme in Iraq, investigators today strongly criticised Secretary General Kofi Annan, his deputy and the Security Council for allowing Saddam Hussein to gain €8.1bn as a result of the giant humanitarian operation.

A sweeping year-long probe of the Iraq oil-for-food program has concluded that the United Nations allowed “illicit, unethical, and corrupt behaviour” to overwhelm the $64bn (€51.2bn) operation, and must adopt sweeping reforms to reclaim its credibility before taking on such tasks again.

The former chief of the Iraq oil-for-food programme has resigned – just a day before investigators release a report that is expected to accuse him of taking kickbacks under the $64bn (€51.8bn) humanitarian operation.

The committee probing the UN oil-for-food programme has announced it will again investigate Secretary-General Kofi Annan after two previously unknown emails suggested he may have known more than he claimed about a multi-million-dollar UN contract awarded to the company that employed his son.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan fired staff member Joseph Stephanides for wrongdoing in the oil-for-food scandal, a UN spokesman said today – the first dismissal stemming from alleged corruption in the multibillion-dollar programme.

QUESTIONS raised by a probe of the UN oil-for-food programme for Iraq may have given critics more ammunition against the world body, even though Secretary-General Kofi Annan was cleared of corrupt practices.

Investigators probing the UN oil-for-food program in Iraq will criticise UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, his son and the Swiss company that employed him, but will not accuse the UN chief of corruption, officials said.

SECRETARY-GENERAL Kofi Annan urged world leaders yesterday to implement the boldest changes to the United Nations in its 60 year history.

The UN has vowed to discipline two officials implicated in a report that detailed conflicts of interest and flawed management in the UN oil-for-food programme, while the man leading the investigation warned that more revelations were forthcoming.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has ordered disciplinary action against the head of the UN oil-for-food program in Iraq, who was sharply criticised in an investigation that accused him of a “grave conflict of interest” and “undermining the integrity” of the UN.

The man leading an independent investigation into alleged corruption in the United Nations’ oil-for-food programme said most of the money illegally obtained by Saddam Hussein came from smuggling, much of which the UN Security Council knew about but did not stop.

Arthur Andersen chief executive Joseph Berardino has resigned.