The U.N. seems to be typical big government: inefficient, sluggish, unaccacountable, and often immoral (as the majority of its constituents represent unelected, oppressive dictatorships). Why people would want to exand the powers of such a monstrosity escapes me. Perhaps its a religious tenant for them.

In the Weekly Standard, Claudia Rossett writes:

Beyond that, if you like Enron-style transparency, you have to love Oil-for-Food. At any given time, the program oversees billions in Iraq's money, awaiting the sludge-slow U.N. process of allocation and disbursement. For the first few years the U.N. parked the cash in a French bank, the Banque Nationale de Paris. More recently, it diversified the funds--currently totaling some $13 billion--among a handful of banks. But the U.N. provides no bank statements to the public, does not disclose the names of the banks, and won't even say what countries they're based in. Auditing is an in-house affair, conducted by government employees of a rotating trio of member states, chaired this year by France.

Hmmm... French banks get to collect interest on the old Oil For Food program? Interesting. Follow this: The slower the money is in moving through the pipeline, tthe longer we withhold food and medical supplies, the more money French banks make. Good thing we can trust those French auditors to keep things in line!

The fact the auditors themselves are French should give us a bit of a hint as to what geographic region these banks probably occupy. Yet another French monetary incentive for continuing to keep the Iraqi people living on "Oil for Food".