Friday, November 11 2005 20:25 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Government today (November 11, 2005) notified the terms of reference of the Justice R. S. Pathak Inquiry Authority clothing with powers under the Commissions of Enquiry Act to go into the allegations of payoffs to former External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh and Congress Party named in the Volcker Committee report.

An official release said the Authority, headed by former Chief Justice of India and Judge of the International Court of Justice, will go into various aspects relating to the references in the report of the Volcker Committee on the United Nations Oil-for-Food Programme, where the beneficiaries are listed as "Mr K Natwar Singh, member of the Indian Congress Party" and "India-Congress Party."

The power conferred on the Authority provides for tabling of the report together with the memorandum of action taken in Parliament within six months of its submission of Government and it will have powers of Civil Court for summoning witnesses, documents and receiving evidence.

The Authority may require any person to furnish information useful or relevant to the Inquiry and to conduct search or seizures for books of accounts or other documents from anywhere.

The Authority shall be deemed to be a civil court for the purpose of certain provisions under the Chapter entitled "Of Contempts of the Lawful Authority of Public Servants" in the Indian Penal Code.

The Authority's proceedings will be deemed to be judicial and it will have powers to utilise the services of any officer or investigation agencies of the central or state government with their concurrence for conducting investigation.

No statement made by a person in the course of giving evidence before the Commission can be used against him in any civil or criminal proceedings.

Acts in good faith will be protected from legal proceedings and all the Authority members will be deemed to be Public Servant.

Any act calculated to bring the Authority or any Member into disrepute will be liable to penalty.

The Terms of Reference were notified in the Gazette through a resolution.

The Resolution refers to the Volcker Committee report's illustration of the manner in which Iraq manipulated the Oil-for-Food Programme to dispense contracts on the basis of political preference and to derive illicit payments from companies that obtain oil and humanitarian aid contracts.

As references to Natwar Singh and the Congress Party constituted a matter of definite public importance, the Government decided to go to the root of this matter in order establish the truth or otherwise of the unverified references relating to payment of surcharge contained in the Committee Report.

The Volcker Committee has released a set of eight comprehensive tables identifying contractors under the programme and other actors of significance to programme transactions including non-contractual beneficiaries of Iraqi oil allocations and parties that finance oil transactions.

In one of the tables one contract in the name of Massefield AG, Switzerland indicate that purportedly 2,000,000 barrels of oil were allocated and 1,936,000 barrels lifted, the Resolution noted.

The company indicates that 498,973 dollars was levied as surcharge and Andleeb Sehgal deposited an amount of 60,000 dollars on March 13 2001 and Hamdan Export deposited an amountof 438,518 dollars on May 27, 2001 in the Jordan National Bank. The intended beneficiary of this contract has been listed as K Natwar Singh, member of Indian Congress Party, according to the Committee report.

In the same table, the Resolution said, that another contract in the name of the same company, Masefield, indicate that purportedly 1,000,000 barrels of oil were allocated and 1,001,000 barrels were lifted.

The corresponding entry in Table 5 relating to this contract and the company indicates that 250,224 dollars was levied as surcharge and that Hamdan Export deposited 59,808 dollrs on June 11 2001 and another 190,214 dollars on Dec 19, 2001 in the Jordan National Bank, the Resolution said.

The intended beneficiary of this contract has been listed as India-Congress Party, the Resolution said.

To go into the root of the matter relating to payment of surcharge contained in the Volcker Committee's Report, it was felt desirable to set up the single-member Inquiry Authority has been set up.