Expansion of Probe into Iraq's Oil-for-Food Program Includes CPA By Charles Homans Knight Ridder Newspapers
Tuesday 05 October 2004
Washington - A House of Representatives subcommittee on Tuesday broadened its investigation of Iraq's oil-for-food program to include the Bush administration's handling of the country's oil money.
The decision to subpoena documents from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York marks a major shift in the Government Reform subcommittee's investigation, which until this point had focused on corruption in the United Nations oil-for-food program in Iraq during Saddam's regime.
The decision means the subcommittee also will scrutinize the activities of the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority, which governed Iraq from May 2003 to June 2004. A recent internal audit of the CPA by its inspector general concluded that the authority couldn't account for $8.8 billion in oil revenues that belonged to the Iraqi people.
The New York Fed manages the Development Fund for Iraq, an account in which Iraqi oil money and other funds earmarked for Iraq's reconstruction are held.
"This money belongs to the Iraqi people - it is not a slush fund," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the subcommittee's ranking minority member. "The administration should use these funds in a transparent manner for the benefit of the Iraqi people."
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