From the United Nations website, a summary of "The Spokesman's Noon Briefing" on Friday, November 26. The spokesman, Fred Eckhard, speaks for UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Asked about a media report that Kojo Annan, the Secretary-General's son, had continued to receive payments from the Cotecna firm until early this year, the Spokesman confirmed that a journalist had inquired about that earlier this week. The United Nations had no knowledge of it, however, he said. Kojo Annan's confirmed that it was true that Kojo Annan received payments until February 2004, as part of an open-ended, no-compete contract with Cotecna.
The no-compete contract, he said in response to another question, is an arrangement in which a company can deal with a departing employee, who could set up a competing business, by making payments in exchange for that person agreeing not to compete with his former employer. He said it was standard practice, calling it a "well-known device in the industry," and asserted it was not fair to suggest that it was the same as having Kojo Annan on Cotecna's payroll.
Kojo Annan's lawyer added that the arrangement had been reported to the Independent Inquiry Committee headed by Paul Volcker. The Spokesman said he could not explain the discrepancy between this information and the earlier impression that the United Nations had, that the no-compete contract had ended in 1999. The matter, Eckhard said, was now in Volcker's hands. |