Secretary-General Kofi Annan has proposed an independent investigation of alleged corruption in the UN oil-for-food programme for Iraq following allegations that UN staff may have reaped millions of dollars from the programme that helped Iraqis cope with international sanctions. In a letter to the Security Council revealing his proposal, Annan said for the investigation to be âthorough and effective,â it would need the councilâs support and the âactive cooperationâ of member states. Annan said he would send another letter detailing how such an inquiry would be organized. âI propose to establish an independent, high-level inquiry to investigate the allegations relating to the administration and management of the (oil-for-food) programme, including allegations of fraud and corruption,â he said in the letter released late Friday.
| Going to look into his son's involvement, are they? |
Annanâs spokesman, Fred Eckhard, has said that the secretary-general doesnât have the authority to investigate allegations in the media about wrongdoing by governments or companies. He explained that the oil-for-food programme âhad no responsibility to oversee or investigate the kinds of contract skimming that have been reported in the media.â
| "Yes. It has no responsibility to investigate itself. That's for others to do â if they can find the evidence." |
He suggested that the Security Council might want to look at the actions of companies or governments involved in the programme, or possibly ask the committee that monitored sanctions to look into the allegations, or have governments investigate their own national companies. Earlier Friday, Annan told journalists that he has been talking with Security Council members about the scope of the investigation. âI think we need to have an independent investigation, an investigation that can be as broad as possible to look into all these allegations which have been made and get to the bottom of this because I donât think we need to have our reputation impugned,â he said.
| "No more than it has been already, anyway." |
Asked whether he needed a Security Council resolution to authorize such an investigation, Annan said: âWell, if not necessarily a resolution, an agreement, an understanding that they will cooperate and get others to cooperate to make the report. ... So their cooperation is going to be essential.â The investigation will need âquite a bit of cooperation from othersâ because many companies and countries were involved in the oil-for-food programme, Annan said. âBut at least we will go ahead full speed under our own staff and hopefully it can be expanded to other areas,â the secretary-general said. âThe Iraqis themselves said they are organizing an investigation and have documents which they said they have found which we are trying to get copies of.â |