Two very different scenes have been unfolding dramatically on separate floors at the United Nations headquarters in New York in the past week. In one suite, officials are digging out from under a mountain of critical internal audits of the $64bn (£34bn) Iraqi oil-for-food programme released by Paul Volcker, former chairman of the US Federal Reserve, who is heading an independent inquiry into charges of mismanagement and possible corruption. This humanitarian relief effort, as a matter of policy, resisted public disclosure of critical contractual and other information. The UN paid a heavy price as a result: the "annus horribilis" as Kofi Annan, UN secretary-general, described 2004 at an end-of-year press conference.

Elsewhere in the building, the team co-ordinating the international response to the Indian Ocean tsunami catastrophe is establishing a web-based financial tracking system that will enable anyone, including the public, to trace where relief dollars are coming from and how they are being spent. It is also setting up a squad to investigate credible allegations of fraud and waste. PricewaterhouseCoopers is helping to build the system, which will be overseen by an external advisory board.