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Annan's son faces fresh allegations in UN scandal
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-03-24 09:31
The United Nations on Wednesday faced fresh allegations against
Secretary-General Kofi Annan's son in the oil-for-food scandal but predicted the
U.N. chief himself would be vindicated.
At issue is an independent probe into wrongdoing in the U.N.-administered $67
billion oil-for-food program for Iraq, conducted by Paul Volcker, the former
U.S. Federal Reservechairman. Volcker releases another report next Tuesday on
whether Annan through his son influenced the contract bidding.
Mark Malloch Brown, Annan's chief of staff told a news conference the
secretary-general believed he would "be fully vindicated" of any allegations he
had a role in awarding a goods inspection contract in 1998 to the Swiss firm
Cotecna .
![UN Secretary General Kofi Annan holds a press conference following an address to the UN General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York. Annan's son, Kojo Annan, received at least 300,000 dollars from a former employer Cotecna, a Swiss inspections concern involved in the UN Oil for Food program. [AFP/File]](xin_510302240934928261677.jpg)
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan holds a press
conference following an address to the UN General Assembly at UN
headquarters in New York. Annan's son, Kojo Annan, received at least
300,000 dollars from a former employer Cotecna, a Swiss inspections
concern involved in the UN Oil for Food program.
[AFP/File] | "The fact is that Kojo has confirmed himself that he misled his father,"
Malloch Brown said in reference to the younger Annan's relationship with
Cotecna. "We believe on Tuesday the secretary-general will be exonerated of any
wrongdoing but like you we have to wait for the report."
But Malloch Brown confirmed a report in The Financial Times that Annan had
met twice with Cotecna officials before the contract was awarded and once
afterward.
He said Cotecna officials approached the secretary-general at a public event
and then saw him by way of a courtesy call through an acquaintance to talk about
U.N. participation in a "national lottery" and not the oil-for-food program.
Kojo Annan at first said he was a trainee at Cotecna in West Africa and left
the firm in 1997. But payments continued well afterward and The Financial Times
said they reached $300,000 but was not certain if they related to Iraq.
Under the oil-for food program, which began in December 1996 and ended in
November 2003, Iraq was allowed to sell oil to buy civilian goods in order to
ease the impact of 1990 sanctions on ordinary Iraqis.
Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's government siphoned nearly $2 billion
in kickbacks from companies conducting business under the program, a key U.S.
report showed.
LEGAL FEES QUESTIONED
The Volcker commission also disputed a U.N. statement that it had offered to
pay legal fees to Benon Sevan, former head of the program, to get his
cooperation in the investigation.
The Volcker commission in its last interim report on Feb 3. said Sevan had a
"grave" conflict of interest by his actions as head of the program.
On Wednesday, the commission said that Sevan was permitted to have an
attorney during interviews only because he was "the single individual against
whom the most serious and direct allegations of corruption had been made, as of
that time."
"This exception was not motivated, as suggested by the United Nations's
statement by a desire to induce Mr Sevan to cooperate," the inquiry committee
said.
"We booped. We got it wrong," Malloch Brown said. He said the U.N. statement
"misrepresented the position of the panel through a poor syntax and
juxtaposition of sentences."
No money has yet been paid to Sevan and the United Nations said it was
questioning some of his reimbursement claims and would not pay fees after Feb 3,
the date of the Volcker report.
A U.S. official said Washington was unaware of the offer and was looking into
it. Another senior Security Council ambassador called it a "crass decision" to
use Iraqi money.
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