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U.N. Family Affair : Part Duex
UNITED NATIONS — Oil-for-Food is the biggest scandal ever to hit the United Nations, but it is just one of many scandals erupting at the world body – all symptoms of trouble at the core. The latest shocker intersects with Oil-for-Food, but centers on separate activities in the U.N. procurement department, where a longtime U.N. staffer handling tens of millions of dollars worth of contracts for a variety of U.N. operations is entwined in a father-son apparent conflict of interest similar to the one that engulfed Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his son Kojo.
The story points to a pattern of crony connections and questionable practices at the United Nations, including family ties between U.N. officials and the organization’s multi-billion dollar contracting business for goods and services. Along the way it raises fresh questions about the already battered credibility of the U.N.-authorized investigation into Oil-for-Food, led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. The staffer in question is Alexander Yakovlev (search), a dapper Russian who is possibly the longest tenured member of the U.N. procurement department — which last year alone spent more than $1.3 billion buying supplies and services for the United Nations. Yakovlev joined the U.N. staff in the late 1980s, when U.N. jobs filled by natives of the Soviet Union and East Bloc countries went to applicants directly nominated by their governments. Colleagues say that even after the 1991 Soviet collapse, Yakovlev has kept in close touch with members of the Russian mission to the U.N.

Yakovlev’s job includes such sensitive matters as vetting potential U.N. contractors and processing their bids. In the 1990s, Yakovlev was deeply involved in the hiring of inspection firms for Oil-for-Food, including Cotecna Inspection S.A., the Swiss firm for which Kojo Annan worked. After Secretary-General Annan reluctantly concluded that the more than $110 billion Oil-for-Food scandal was worth investigating, Yakovlev popped up as a key witness in two interim reports released earlier this year by the Volcker investigation. In the Volcker version of events, Yakovlev emerged as a champion of integrity, portrayed as having fought a losing battle for fair bidding procedures on two major contracts under Oil-for-Food. Based in part on Yakovlev’s testimony, the Volcker committee censured another U.N. official, Joseph Stephanides, whom Kofi Annan last month fired. Stephanides is appealing his case on grounds that he simply followed orders from more senior officials and the U.N. Security Council.

Alexander Yakovlev told FOX News last month that he refuses to talk with the media without the express permission of Kofi Annan. FOX News’ request to Annan to supply that permission was denied recently by Annan’s deputy press spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, on grounds that Yakovlev remains an “important witness” in the ongoing Volcker investigation. Dujarric further stressed that “from the evidence presented in the Volcker report, it is obvious that [Yakovlev] acted with great integrity and followed proper procedure.”

It’s hard to be sure of that, given the secrecy that shrouds Volcker’s investigation as well as all Oil-for-Food records. But from material obtained outside the narrow focus of the Volcker reports, FOX News has learned that in matters of U.N. business, Yakovlev apparently had his own ideas involving proper procedures where it concerned a major U.N. supplier, IHC Services, Ltd., which at his request employed his son — Dmitry Yakovlev, now 23.
Long long article full of details
Posted by: Steve 2005-06-22
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=122276