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| Annan Takes No Action on Aide Who Shredded Papers | |
| 2005-04-29 | |
| UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan decided to take no action against his former chief of staff for shredding three years of files related to the oil-for-food inquiry, his spokesman said on Thursday. The Independent Inquiry Committee, led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, said in its March report that Iqbal Riza, who retired in January, had shredded at least two documents that were not duplicated elsewhere. But after reviewing the findings in the Volcker report in March, Annan found there was "no ground for disciplinary action" against Riza, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. Annan, in his own letter to Riza, dated April 19, said, "While those actions were careless, I do not believe they can be construed as deliberate attempts to impede the work of the Independent Inquiry Committee."
The inquiry committee, in an interim report in March, said Riza had agreed that his assistant could weed out three years of chronological files in April 2004, a day after the Security Council approved the oil-for-food investigation. Riza told the committee he believed the files were duplicates of those maintained elsewhere at the United Nations. But the inquiry found evidence that two documents were not duplicated and said Riza acted "imprudently." The $67 billion oil-for-food program, which began in late 1996 and ended in 2003, was set up by the U.N. Security Council to ease the impact of sanctions imposed after Saddam Hussein's troops invaded Kuwait in 1990. Baghdad was allowed to sell oil to buy basic goods and could negotiate its own contracts. After the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, Iraq disclosed a virtual who's who of groups and individuals around the world whom Saddam bribed or tried to bribe in an effort to get the sanctions lifted. Volcker, in an earlier interim report, said Benon Sevan, the head of the U.N. program, had steered Iraqi oil contracts to an Egyptian trader he knew. Dujarric said the United Nations would not pay Sevan's legal fees, which Annan had earlier agreed to pay. But Annan reversed the decision after the Volcker committee accused Sevan of a "grave conflict of interest." "We did receive a letter from Mr. Sevan's lawyer earlier this month asking us to reconsider our position about the payment of his legal fees," Dujarric said. "The secretary-general's position on that is unchanged and his legal fees will not be paid for by the United Nations." | |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #3 This came from Al-Reuters, eh? Progress. Look out! Snowball headed your way, Goofi. |
| Posted by: thibaud (aka lex) 2005-04-29 12:31:47 PM |
| #2 Take no action? The guy's probably gonna get a raise for this. |
| Posted by: Raj 2005-04-29 12:28:30 PM |
| #1 Annan, in his own letter to Riza, dated April 19, said, "While those actions were careless, I do not believe they can be construed as deliberate attempts to impede the work of the Independent Inquiry Committee." Haaahahahahaaahahahaaaahahahhahahahahaaaaahahahahaaa.... |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-04-29 10:16:06 AM |