NEW YORK -
Iraq's US-installed interim government, which is
planning to spend about US$2 billion on its military
this year, has declared it is too poor to pay the $14.6
million it owes the United Nations.
"Iraq was
not in a position to pay what it owed to the United
Nations, although it hopes to do so next year, when oil
production has increased," the interim government says
in a letter to the UN Committee on Contributions,
transmitted through the Iraqi mission to the UN.
The committee has accepted the argument that the
government in Baghdad is unable to pay the accumulated
arrears because of "the devastation wrought [to Iraq] by
more than two decades of war and the effects of a decade
of international sanctions."
"The argument is
ridiculous, to say the least," a UN official told Inter
Press Service (IPS), speaking on condition of anonymity.
"The [US-run] former Coalition Provisional Authority,
which is now being accused of misspending hundreds of
millions of dollars in Iraq's oil revenues, did not
think it fit to pay the country's UN dues, even while it
was pleading for UN assistance to help the
reconstruction of Iraq," he added.
The letter
also says that living standards in Iraq have fallen
sharply and the country faces a high level of
unemployment. "Although Iraq has enormous potential,
with large oil reserves, hydroelectric potential and a
skilled population, the immediate problems of
reconstruction are vast."
Additionally, the
letter says the country has been saddled by the Saddam
regime with external debts amounting to about $120
billion.
The non-payment of UN dues puts Iraq,
with the world's second largest oil reserves - amounting
to over 112 billion barrels - in league with some of the
world's poorest nations, including Benin, Chad, Somalia,
Liberia, Niger and Tajikistan, who are also deemed
deadbeats.
All of these countries are also on
the verge of losing their voting rights in the General
Assembly for non-payment of their accumulated assessed
contributions.
Striking a note of sarcasm, Jim
Paul of the New York-based Global Policy Forum told IPS,
"The Iraqi government should perhaps ask Halliburton to
help them out." The California-based US company, with
ties to US Vice President Dick Cheney, received billions
of dollars in Iraqi contracts, some without competitive
bidding.
"The fact of the matter is that paying
your annual dues to the United Nations is of symbolic
importance, even though the amount is ridiculously
small," added Paul. He said that Iraq's excuse to not
pay its dues is perhaps a message it wants to convey to
the UN: "You guys did not go along with the United
States and the United Kingdom" on the invasion of Iraq,
"and now you don't have even your people in Iraq because
of security reasons."
"It is a way of sticking
its finger in the eye of the United Nations," Paul said.
In effect, the Iraqi government is saying: "The United
Nations is not one of our priorities. With all the
billions of dollars US taxpayers are spending on Iraq,
the $14 million should be peanuts."
The UN
committee says it recognizes "the exceptional problems
faced by Iraq and the complex transitional process under
way, and has concluded that the failure of Iraq to pay
the minimum amount necessary to avoid the application of
Article 19 [of the UN Charter] was due to conditions
beyond its control."
As a result, the interim
government has been given until June 30 of next year to
pay its $14.6 million in accumulated dues. Article 19
says a UN member state "which is in arrears in the
payment of its financial contributions to the
organization shall have no vote in the General Assembly
if the amount of its arrears equals or exceeds the
amount of the contributions due from it for the
preceding two full years."
After the UN imposed
sanctions on the former government of Saddam Hussein in
August 1990 for invading neighboring Kuwait, Baghdad
stopped paying its UN dues.
Last week, the
Coalition Provisional Authority's auditor general
released a report critical of how the body kept accounts
when it was in charge of running Iraq from May 2003
through June this year. The authority used money seized
from the Saddam government and Iraq's oil revenues to
pay for 1,928 contracts worth more than $847 million.
The report said that in one glaring case,
officials did not have any records to justify spending
$24.7 million to replace Iraq's currency. There were
also excess charges of more than $3 million on an oil
pipeline repair contract.
The auditors also
found that 29 of the 43 contracts had incomplete or
missing documentation. "We were unable to determine if
the goods specified in the contract were ever received,
the total amount of payments made to the contractor, or
if the contractor fully complied with the terms of the
contract," they wrote.
