Volcker Committee Report on Oil-for-Food due Wednesday...

And you can bet this blog has its homework cut out for it! Meanwhile, we have the following preview from the Financial Times:

The UN’s leadership needs comprehensive and urgent reform following a failure of management in Iraq’s oil-for-food programme, the Volcker inquiry is expected to say this week.

“The main conclusions are unambiguous,” says a copy of the committee’s summary, seen in advance by the Financial Times. “The organisation requires stronger executive leadership, thoroughgoing administrative reform, and more reliable controls and auditing.” The report says “ethical lapses” and weakness in the programme’s management were “symptomatic of systematic problems in the UN administration generally”.’
It warns that the UN’s ability to do its job depends on its maintaining an image of competence, honesty and accountability. “It is precisely those qualities that too often were absent in the administration of the oil-for-food programme.”

The findings are likely to come as a powerful new blow to UN secretary-general Kofi Annan’s managerial reputation, only days before dozens of world leaders gather for a UN summit in New York.

UPDATE: The latest from Ms. Rosett is here. She points out in email that this “[i]ncludes what Volcker did NOT tell us on pages 85-86 of the last report of the UN’s oil-for-food inquiry.”