A year-long probe of the Iraq oil-for-food program has concluded that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan should take responsibility for serious management lapses, the UN Independent Inquiry Committee (IIC) said on Tuesday.

The IIC led by former US Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker issued a preface to its latest report a day before its formal release on Wednesday.

"Neither the Security Council nor the Secretariat leadership was clearly in command," the preface said. "When things went awry, and they surely did, when troublesome conflicts arose between political objectives and administrative effectiveness, decisions were delayed, bungled or simply shunned."

"The administrative structure and the personnel practices of the organization -- certainly within the Secretariat -- were simply not fit to meet the truly extraordinary challenges presented by the oil-for-food program, or even programs of much lesser scope," the preface noted.

"The inescapable conclusion from the committee's work is that the UN Organization needs thoroughgoing reform, and it needs it urgently," it said.

According to the preface, the United Nations required stronger executive leadership, thoroughgoing administrative reform and more reliable controls and auditing.

However, the IIC also said its probe had revealed "serious instances of illicit, unethical and corrupt behavior within the United Nations, but the pervasive administrative difficulties were not only, or even primarily, related to personal malfeasance."

"The UN Charter designates the Secretary-General as chief administrative officer," it said. "Whatever the founders had in mind, the Secretary-General has not been chosen for his managerial or administrative skills."

"The reality is that the Secretary-General has come to be viewed as chief diplomatic and political agent of the United Nations," it said, adding that Annan "is widely respected for precisely those qualities."

"The main conclusions are unambiguous," the preface said. "The organization requires stronger executive leadership, thorough administrative reform and more reliable controls and auditing."

Last month, Benon Sevan and Alexander Yakovlev, two UN senior officials, were accused of taking kickbacks and bribes by the IIC in an interim report.

The oil-for-food program, launched from December 1996 to November 2003 to help ordinary Iraqis cope with UN sanctions imposed after Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, was one of the largest humanitarian programs in history.

Source: Xinhua