GEORGE RUSSELL AND CLAUDIA ROSETT:

How bad is the still expanding scandal in the United Nations’ multi-billion-dollar procurement division? Based on a still-secret internal investigation, the answer is: for the U.N., it is just as bad as the gigantic Oil-for-Food debacle — or maybe worse.

The focus of the current scandal is U.N. peacekeeping, a function that consumes 85 percent of the U.N.’s procurement budget — a cost that could reach $2 billion in 2005. Like many of the U.N.’s financial dealings, it is shrouded in secrecy. And like the multi-billion-dollar Oil-for-Food scandal, it is wrapped in what the U.N.’s own investigators now call “systematic abuse,” “a pattern of corrupt practices,” and “a culture of impunity.”

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