Page "Oil-for-Food Programme" Paragraph 28

The president of Oilexco Ltd, Arthur Millholland, whose name also appeared on the al Mada list, denied any wrongdoing, but confirms the charges that illegal surcharges were being paid to the Iraqi government by contractors.

However, the al Mada list does not discuss bribes paid to Iraq-it discusses bribes paid to individuals so that they would support Iraq.

Few deny that in Iraq, like in many third-world countries, bribes and kickbacks were regularly paid to the leadership in order to get contracts, but some suggest that kickbacks would normally not occur in such countries when a UN-run programme was involved.