Annan, Volcker assure India full co-operation

     New Delhi: United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and Paul Volcker have assured the Indian Government of their full cooperation in the investigations of the Volcker Report. The Government appointed Special Envoy for probing the alleged involvement Natwar Singh and the Congress party in the Iraq oil- for-food scam as reported by the Volcker Committee, Virendra Dayal, received the assurances when he met them separately. Dayal met Volcker on November 18, while he held talks with Annan on Monday. Earlier, the Volcker Committee had indicated that it would return the documents given to it on the basis of confidentiality by the country or entity from which it had got them. Others would be handed over to the United Nations. The Volcker Committee in its report has named former External Affairs Minster Natwar Singh and the Congress party as non- contractual beneficiaries of the Iraq oil-for-food scam. The panel had named 129 Indian companies for paying illegal surcharges to Saddam Hussein government in to get contracts for supply of humanitarian goods.