[JURIST] Members of the Independent Inquiry Committee [official website] created to investigate the United Nations Oil-for-Food Programme [official website; JURIST news archive] discussed their findings and recommendations [official report] with the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee [official website] in testimony on Tuesday. The committee, formed in April 2004, investigated the program for more than a year before presenting its final report [JURIST report] in early September. Committee chairman Paul Volcker [Wikipedia profile] criticized the “culture of inaction” of UN leadership and recommending the creation of a chief operating officer at the UN. Some Senators and the US House of Representatives, which recently voted to decrease US funding of the UN if reforms are not enacted [JURIST report], are clamoring to withhold dues from the world body. Volcker said, however, that such action could create the perception that the US is “bulldozing the organization by very crude and difficult measures.” US UN Ambassador John Bolton, making his first appearance before the Foreign Relations Committee since his abortive confirmation hearings [JURIST report], took the same position in his own testimony to the senators, repeating views he articulated before a House committee {JURIST report] late last month. VOA has more.