What a surprise

Secretary General Kofi Annan did not ask Paul Volcker for a financial disclosure statement before appointing him to investigate the Oil-for-Food Scandal.

The attention to Volcker and his potential conflicts of interest focuses on the following:

— Volcker has a longtime membership in the UNA-USA Business Council (search), a pro-United Nations organization partly funded by BNP Paribas (search), the bank that handled all Oil-for-Food transactions.

— There are questions about Volcker’s position as an adviser to the Power Corporation of Canada (search), a company with close ties to BNP and also to Total (search), the French oil giant that did nearly $2 billion of Oil-for-Food business.

Yeah, that's the way to get open and full accounting of the misdeeds.

Hat tip: Geepers