The United Nations decided Thursday to launch an investigation into new accusations against a Singapore diplomat who was charged with misusing funds from the oil-for-food humanitarian programme for Iraq to hire a countryman. The diplomat, Dileep Nair, is a U.N. undersecretary general and director of the Office of Internal Oversight Services, whose five- year tenure will expire on April 20. U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said the United Nations has "issued a charge letter against Mr. Nair on the adverse finding made against him" by the inquiry committee headed by former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker. Volcker has been investigating corruption in the U.N.-led oil-for-food plan. Eckhard said the charge letter was based on new accusations, in this case by Volcker. He said Nair was asked to defend himself by answering those accusations within a week. A report by Volcker's Independent Inquiry Committee on Tuesday said Nair violated U.N. obligations to uphold "the highest standards of efficiency, competence and integrity". --More 2319 Local Time 2019 GMT
