mr. chairman , i yield myself such time as i may consume . 
mr. chairman , i stand here with great pride next to my chairman , the gentleman from illinois ( mr. hyde ) xz4001920 , and recall all the great and wonderful battles that he has fought in his career , and i am so proud to be at his side at this , not the last battle that we will fight , but , as we lead into the sunset of his career , a battle that will be meaningful and remembered , and for which the american people will be grateful that we had his leadership . 
also , i might add , we are grateful for the honorable adversarial relationship that we have on the other side of the aisle , the gentleman from california ( mr. lantos ) xz4002310 , a champion of human rights , a dear friend , and someone who i greatly respect and whose guidance , i might say , has been important to my own career . 
we are here today to take up the bill named for the gentleman from illinois ( mr. hyde ) xz4001920 , the henry hyde united nations reform act of 2005 . 
this bill will reform the united nations in a meaningful and lasting way , especially in the arena of accountability . 
reform is vital in this area . 
and if anyone should doubt that , they only need look at the oil-for-food scandal which my subcommittee , under the leadership of the gentleman from illinois ( mr. hyde ) xz4001920 , has been investigating . 
the oil-for-food scandal , let us remember what it was . 
the oil-for-food program was set up in order to make sure that the women and children and noncombatants of iraq did not die of lack of food and medicines because of an oil boycott that we had put , the united nations had placed , on iraq under saddam hussein 's regime as a way of pressuring saddam hussein to give up his chemical and biological weapons , weapons of mass destruction , and to continue , and to refrain from his hostile acts like the invasion of kuwait . 
unfortunately , the oil-for-food scandal is what happened to the oil-for-food program . 
we decided to establish a program , the oil-for-food program , which would permit the iraqi regime to sell a certain amount of oil under united nations supervision and to use the resources from that sale to purchase a certain amount of humanitarian supplies to help the so-called starving women and children of iraq so these people would not be necessarily harmed . 
right from the beginning , as the united nations organized the program , saddam hussein , this vicious dictator , this mass murderer , was able to choose the buyers for iraq 's oil , as well as the suppliers of humanitarian goods , which would then be the product of the sale of that oil . 
what do you expect will happen when that is the way it is organized ? 
and why was it organized that way ? 
it was organized that way because it was a united nations program . 
let us note that our allies , including france and russia , who had demanded that we have an oil-for-food program to help those poor and starving iraqi children , that as we put the program in place , instead of helping us , they became hindrances to our making sure that the program was run in an honest way . 
saddam hussein was able to demand kickbacks and surcharges for the sale of oil and the purchase of humanitarian goods . 
our allies were all too willing to pay those kickbacks . 
these are the same ones who pressured us to establish the program . 
business was the driving factor , of course , in their decision . 
but let us note that another driving factor was the fact that we have uncovered that as part of the oil-for-food program bribes were being channeled to people in those very governments , and perhaps that had something to do with the decision-making process of our so-called allies . 
of the estimated $ 65 billion in oil sales during the time of the oil-for-food program , perhaps as much as $ 10 billion was siphoned off by saddam hussein , this mass murderer , and this $ 10 billion , which was supposed to be going to the iraqi people to alleviate their suffering . 
a united nations-sanctioned inquiry led by federal reserve bank chairman paul volcker has unearthed these evidences of kickbacks paid , for example , to the former director of the oil-for-food program in the united nations . 
thus we are saying that it was a united nations program and the oil-for-food program resources were used to bribe benon sevan , united nations official who oversaw the program who had been appointed by secretary-general kofi annan and was a close confidant of kofi annan . 
the volcker commission also published evidence detailing the destruction of documents about the oil-for-food program as late as last year by annan 's former chief of staff , iqbal riza . 
the house international relations committee has been investigating the united nations oil-for-food program since march of 2004 . 
the oversight of the oil-for-food program at the united nations itself was undercut by the weak institutional oversight management structures in the united nations itself . 
the united nations , as it was organized , as it is organized unless we act today , bears a great deal of the responsibility for the failure of these type of programs like the oil-for-food program . 
there is not a culture of openness at the united nations nor is the structure open , but instead a closed structure and a culture of arrogance . 
the united nations office of internal oversight services , for example , was denied adequate funding and manpower needed to properly audit the oil-for-food program . 
if they were not given the proper resources , why would we expect it not to be corrupted , especially when dealing with the likes of saddam hussein ? 
saddam provided gifts from $ 10 , 000 to $ 25 , 000 to families of palestinian suicide bombers with the kickback money that he received from the oil-for-food program . 
and let us note something else . 
if you want to find out what this program did and the power it gave saddam hussein , and the corruption of this idea of saving innocent women and children as a program officiated over by the united nations , let us recall a speech in this body , not too long ago . 
the president of the united states gave his state of the union message here and introduced us to a lady sitting next to his wife , the first lady . 
next to her was an iraqi woman whose father had been assassinated by saddam hussein because he was a human rights activist . 
how was the assassin paid off ? 
we have traced back the payment of the assassin of the woman who joined us for the state of the union , the assassin of that woman 's father , we have traced back that payment to a man who received the money from saddam hussein , and it was channeled through this united nations program ; and the money ended up going through a united nations program to an assassin who murdered the father of the woman who was introduced to us because he was a human rights activist . 
if ever there was a travesty , it is this . 
saddam hussein was manipulating the program ; and the united nations , it seems , if not willing to go along with saddam hussein , was certainly not willing to go along with the reforms that would have corrected the program . 
without approval , the new york office of the banque de paris , or paribas , this was the bank that oversaw the oil-for-food program , the u.n. 's bank for the program made unauthorized payments from the program to so-called third parties on more than 400 occasions . 
these third parties where the unauthorized payments were made went to people that they had no idea who they were giving the money to . 
we have yet to be able to trace back who actually runs the corporations who received over 400 payments from the bank that ran this oil-for-food program , all of this , of course , under the united nations ' direction . 
now , that is the oil-for-food program . 
we could go on about that for hours . 
but there are other problems at the u.n . 
which we need to mention , the nepotism at the united nations . 
we have seen over and over again people hiring their children . 
we have seen situations where , for example , benon sevan sold his vouchers to a company in which his stepdaughter was hired , which was in violation of u.n . 
job violation rules . 
and let us note former secretary boutros boutros ghali 's nephew . 
neoptism is rampant at the u.n . 
maurice strong , a long-time u.n . 
official and confidant of secretary general annan , hired his step-daughter kristina mayo for a u.n . 
job in violation of u.n . 
staff regulations . 
benon sevan allegedly sold his oil vouchers to a company run by former secretary general boutros boutros-ghali 's nephew . 
moreover , this deal with sevan was set up by fred nadler , boutros-ghali 's brother-in-law . 
strong has also been tainted by his association with the tongsun park , from the koreagate scandal , against whom a complaint was filed by the u.s. attorney in the southern district of new york in april . 
park was attempting to illicitly influence `` a u.n . 
official '' through iraqi oil-for-food money . 
strong has confirmed that he was that u.n . 
official but denies wrongdoing . 
the wmo in geneva , switzerland , a long-time wmo employee and sudanese national was accused of skimming $ 3 million from accounts at the organization over a 3-4 year period . 
the funds were lost to this corruption and they will likely never be recovered . 
he is said to have faked his death to avoid investigation . 
accordingly , his wife presented a death certificate , acknowledged by sudanese authorities to have been false , in order to claim his u.n . 
pension , which the u.n . 
has withheld pending the results of a full investigation being conducted by the swiss authorities at the request of the wmo . 
wmo authorities believe that ultimately there are 10-15 other wmo employees who could be viewed as negligent or even gross negligence . 
the wmo senior legal advisor reported that while bad , `` the internal procedures were not the worst seen in the u.n . 
family of organizations. '' at wipo , also in geneva , michael wilson , an annan family friend , is being investigated by a swiss judge on charges of bribing a senior official at wipo to win a renovation contract on the agency 's headquarters . 
the wipo official acknowledges receiving $ 270 , 000 from wilson . 
wilson claims the money was from a private business venture . 
there are also allegations of employee skimming of wipo agency funds related to the renovation . 
prior to operation iraqi freedom , the agency coordinated with international relief agencies and u.n . 
member states to relieve the suffering of the iraqi people . 
in january of 1998 , $ 43 , 701 had to be recovered from staff members no longer at the mission as well as outstanding obligations of $ 328 , 287 in november 1997 for the unohci . 
the audit revealed that an inventory of physical assets in may 1998 discovered that 185 items totaling $ 100 , 994 could not be accounted for . 
the united nations claims commission ( uncc ) processes claims for losses and damage suffered as a direct result of iraq 's unlawful invasion and occupation of kuwait in 1990-91 . 
in an audit of the uncc 's awards , the oios viewed the present system resulted in overpayments of $ 2 , 170 , 951 to the claimants in the 10th installment . 
furthermore , in the absence of relevant information , oios estimates that uncc has overpaid by $ .51 billion to date for other claims . 
in addition , it is estimated that uncc would overpay future claims by $ 1.27 billion , under the current exchange rate procedures. '' the united nations population fund and u.n . 
environment program promotes environmental and population strategies among member governments . 
in a statement before a u.n . 
committee in 2004 , thomas respasch of the u.s. mission to the u.n . 
explained , the following extravagant travel expenses of two programs at the u.n. : `` in the u.n . 
population fund , we were quite surprised to learn that some senior staff members who spend more than half their time in travel status are racking up travel costs of $ 225 , 000 . 
in the u.n . 
environment program , travel advances to other persons , in the amount of $ 82 , 208 , had been outstanding for more than 20 months. '' united nations office of drugs and crime ( unodc ) assists member states in their struggle against illicit drugs , crime and terrorism . 
in 2003 , samuel gonzalez-ruiz , a senior adviser to unodc , resigned , charging that the office `` tolerates administrative and in some cases criminal violations '' such as nepotism , mismanagement and misappropriation of funds by agency staff . 
a u.n . 
probe into corruption allegations found that `` a senior official improperly gave 11 contracts to his wife. '' in 2003 , an oios probe found mismanagement by executive director pino arlacchi ; collapse of $ 250 million 10-year plan to eradicate drugs from afghanistan . 
also found evidence of lavish , excessive spending , such as purchase of a $ 100 , 000 mercedes . 
these are but a few of the signs that the u.n . 
is on the wrong path . 
but talking about problems is not enough , we must do something about it . 
this bill is vital for reform of the united nations . 
chairman hyde 's bill brings real reform to an institution that is quite simply broken . 
regarding the accountability section of the bill , there is a provision for a special investigator to be assigned to investigate further instances of corruption by high officials of the u.n. , such as benon sevan . 
this bill brings independence to the office of internal oversight services , oios , removing it from under the thumb of political influence at the u.n . 
and assures oios of proper funding to carry out its mission . 
this bill creates a u.n . 
office of ethics -- an office that after more than a year of investigation into the oil-for-food program has shown -- is sorely needed . 
also , the ethics office will be tasked in this bill with facilitating and operating a system for financial disclosure . 
finally , the bill creates an independent oversight board ( iob ) to review the audits of the oios and other audit bodies of the u.n . 
this office is vital to provide proper oversight of the u.n . 
what we have certainly discovered about the u.n . 
in the hearings on the oil-for-food program that i have held in the subcommittee on oversight and investigations in the international relations committee , is that the u.n . 
was corrupted by saddam hussein . 
this bill will go some distance toward repairing this corruption . 
i conclude by saying that the u.n . 
has not been accountable , transparent and it has not been living up to the standards expected of an institution that receives hundreds of millions of dollars every year from the united states . 
the american taxpayers deserve more for their money . 
this is why chairman hyde wrote this bill and why we are here today : to fix the u.n . 
so that the problems exemplified by the oil-for-food program as well as others such as the horrific rapes committed by u.n . 
peacekeepers are never repeated . 
