There seems to be a lot to study in the Volcker report about how so many companies received kickbacks from Saddam in the oil for food program.

More than 2,400 businesses, including scores of international shell companies and major blue-chip European firms such as Siemens and DaimlerChrysler, paid nearly $1.8 billion in illegal kickbacks to the former Iraqi government through the U.N. oil-for-food program, according to a report by a U.N. committee investigating misconduct.

And it comes as no surprise that those countries and organizations opposing sanctions were the ones receiving the money.

The report also shows how French and Russian diplomats, business executives, U.N. officials and anti-sanctions advocates, including a former Vatican official, either solicited oil trade from Iraqi officials on behalf of companies or benefited financially from the program.

....Iraq used its oil wealth to influence some countries' policies at the United Nations, rewarding Russia $19 billion in oil contracts and France $4.4 billion in deals, according to the report. The report notes that numerous U.S. companies, prevented from directly entering the trade, established subsidiaries in France to do business in Iraq.

The report provides additional evidence in support of allegations that two former top French diplomats, a former senior Kremlin official and British parliamentarian George Galloway profited from the program. It cites a payment to a bank account controlled by Galloway's wife. Galloway has denied wrongdoing.

....The Volcker report also says that anti-sanctions activists and U.N. bureaucrats, including the organization's former humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, Hans Von Sponeck, made money from the program. Von Sponeck, who resigned from his post to protest the sanctions policy, solicited financial contributions for his anti-sanctions activities from companies seeking business deals with Iraq, the report says. He was also paid for introducing German business executives to Iraqi officials, the report adds.

There seems enough blame to go around, but will the UN change its ways? Don't bet on it. Already there is resistance to any change and countries getting up on their high horse to worry more about their own dignity rather than the fact that the UN is riddled through with incompetence and corruption.

After the report was released, Volcker and his top advisers pleaded with the 191-member U.N. General Assembly to change U.N. business practices to prevent future abuses. But he received a chilly response from Costa Rican and Mexican officials, who complained about not being formally given copies of the report. They also questioned why Volcker was raising the matter with the assembly when the Security Council bears primary responsibility for mismanaging the program.

Volcker said design and management failures that permitted the abuses in the oil-for-food program permeate the United Nations. He noted that the failure to institute administrative changes to confront the flaws will lead the world body to repeat its mistakes, further undermining its credibility.

We know about the corruption involved in this instance because of the documents that became available after the fall of Saddam. Is there any honest and clear-eyed person who doesn't suspect that there is financial corruption going on in all sorts of UN programs that we'll never see the documents about what is going on?