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| ai-Guardian/AP: Kofi Not Exonerated |
| 2005-03-30 |
| NEW YORK (AP) - The Swiss company at the heart of a new report on the oil-for-food scandal repeatedly lied about its links to Secretary-General Kofi Annan's son, one investigator said, going much further in his criticism than the document itself. The investigator, Mark Pieth, also rejected Annan's declaration that the report, released Tuesday, exonerated him on the matter of Cotecna Inspections S.A. winning a $10 million-a-year U.N. contract while he was secretary-general and while it employed his son Kojo. ``We did not exonerate Kofi Annan", Pieth told The Associated Press. ``We should not brush this off. A certain mea culpa would have been appropriate." The report was the second to be released by the U.N.-appointed committee led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. It coincides with allegations of sex abuse by U.N. peacekeepers and of sexual harassment and mismanagement by senior U.N. staff. It comes a week after Annan called for the biggest overhaul of the United Nations in its 60-year history. Volcker said at a news conference he hoped the findings, and a final report in midsummer, will help bring about ``a reformed U.N., a U.N. capable of commanding and maintaining the support of its member states and the public at large." A key conclusion was that Kofi Annan never interfered in the awarding of the contract to the Swiss company but should have better investigated possible conflicts of interest after a British newspaper, The Sunday Telegraph, reported the link between Kojo Annan and Cotecna in January 1999. Annan's advisers had told him after a cursory one-day audit in 1999 found no conflict and that no further probe was necessary. Cotecna's contract was subsequently renewed repeatedly. In uncharacteristically strong language, Annan replied ``Hell, no!" when asked if he planned to step down, and noted the report's findings that he committed no personal wrongdoing. ``After so many distressing and untrue allegations have been made against me, this exoneration by the independent inquiry obviously comes as a great relief", he said. But the report clearly faulted the secretary-general's management of the world body and his oversight of the scandal-ridden oil-for-food program in Saddam Hussein's Iraq. The report's harshest criticism, however, was reserved for Cotecna, which won a U.N. contract in 1998 to certify goods imported to Iraq under the program, and Kojo Annan. The report accused them of trying to conceal their relationship after the firm was awarded the contract. snip |
| Posted by:Mrs. Davis |
| #1 ``After so many distressing and untrue allegations have been made against me, this exoneration by the independent inquiry obviously comes as a great relief" Words fail |
| Posted by: gromgorru 2005-03-30 10:50:39 AM |