Investigators probing the UN oil-for-food program in Iraq will criticize UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, his son and the Swiss company that employed him, but will not accuse the UN chief of corruption, officials said.
A report by the investigators scheduled to be released yesterday was expected to find fault Annan for failing to take aggressive action to deal with possible conflict of interest in awarding a UN oil-for-food contract to Cotecna Inspection SA, which employed his son, Kojo, in Africa, the officials said.
It will also criticize Kojo Annan for concealing information about his work for Cotecna, and for deceiving his father, and it will blame the Swiss firm for failing to make information public about the secretary-general's son, officials who have seen the report said on condition of anonymity.
The second report by an investigative team led by former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker is being issued a week after Annan called for the biggest overhaul of the UN in its 60-year history to better tackle the challenges of the 21st century.
It also comes at a time of scandals not only in the oil-for-food program but in UN peacekeeping where sex abuse has been rife, and among senior UN staff who face allegations of sexual harassment and mismanagement.
Volcker's Independent Inquiry Committee will also criticize the secretary-general for failing to detect shortcomings in the UN's internal bureaucracy that allowed problems in the US$64 billion oil-for-food program to continue until 2003 when it was wrapped up after the US-led war in Iraq, the officials said.
While the new report will fault the secretary-general's overall management of the oil-for-food program, it will support statements by his chief of staff and spokesman as recently as Monday that "the secretary-general expects to be cleared of any wrongdoing."
One official said, "He's not going to be implicated in corruption in any form whatsoever."
For the secretary-general, this will almost certainly be the most important finding -- the exoneration of any involvement in corruption he and his senior staff were hoping for.
But criticism of Annan's management of the UN bureaucracy continues to bubble, and even before the Volcker report was issued, several critics said that he was not the right person to lead the extensive UN reforms, which annan hopes world leaders will adopt at a summit in September.
The oil-for-food program was the largest UN humanitarian aid operation. It ran from 1996 to 2003.
Under the program, former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's government was allowed to sell limited -- and eventually unlimited -- oil in exchange for humanitarian goods as an exemption from UN sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
In a bid to curry favor and end sanctions, Saddam allegedly gave former government officials, activists, journalists and UN officials vouchers for Iraqi oil that could then be resold at a profit.
US congressional investigators claim Saddam's regime may have illegally made more than US$21 billion by cheating the oil-for-food program and other sanctions-busting schemes.
Several US lawmakers have previously called for Kofi Annan's resignation.
Senior UN officials insist he has no intention of stepping down, and UN spokesman Fred Eckhard dismissed reports in several newspapers over the weekend describing the secretary-general as weak and depressed.
Kofi Annan, his son, and Cotecna all deny any link between Kojo Annan's employment and the awarding of the UN contract to the company.
The officials said Volcker will state in the report that his investigation of Kojo Annan is continuing. So is his investigation of Benon Sevan, who headed the oil-for-food program.
Volcker has promised a final report in mid-summer.
In his first report in February, Volcker accused Sevan of a "grave conflict of interest," saying his conduct in soliciting oil deals from Iraq was "ethically improper and seriously undermined the integrity of the United Nations."
He also questioned where Sevan got US$160,000 in cash, calling it "unexplained wealth" despite Sevan's claim it came from his aunt.
Sevan's attorney has said he did nothing wrong.
Kojo Annan worked for Cotecna in West Africa from 1995 to December 1997 and then as a consultant until the end of 1998 -- just when it won the oil-for-food contract.
He remained on the Cotecna payroll until last year to prevent him from working for a competitor, but that was only disclosed last November.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese