US declines to give vote of confidence to UN's Annan
29 November 2004
AFP

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - The US ambassador to the United Nations declined to give a vote of confidence to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan amid an enquiry into alleged UN fraud and corruption.

"I don't think that the United States government rushes to judgment until all the facts are in," John Danforth said when asked if Washington still had confidence in the embattled Annan.

"I'm not for pre-judging anything. I'm for the absolute laying out of all of the evidence," he told reporters.

"The oil-for-food charges are very serious. If they turn out to be correct, they do go to the integrity of the organisation," Danforth said.

The US Congress and the United Nations have ordered separate enquiries into the oil-for-food programme, the UN aid scheme that allowed the regime of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to sell oil in exchange for humanitarian supplies.

A Baghdad newspaper in January published what it said was a list of governments and individuals that had received pay-offs from the regime.

The report sparked international scrutiny of the now-defunct programme which deepened last week with revelations that Annan's son Kojo had received payments from a Swiss company linked to the scheme until February 2004.


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Annan 'Disappointed' in Son's Lack of Disclosure
29 November 2004
By Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Monday he was "disappointed" his son did not tell him the full story of his ties to a firm involved in the U.N. oil-for-food program, now under investigation.


Annan's son, Kojo, received payments from the Geneva-based Cotecna firm until last February after the United Nations said he severed ties with the company in February 1999. Part of the payments involved an agreement not to compete with Cotecna in West Africa after he left the firm.


"Naturally I was very disappointed and surprised," Annan told reporters, saying the discrepancy had not been brought to his attention.


Cotecna had been hired by the United Nations from December 1998 until 2003 to check civilian supplies reaching Iraq under the U.N.-administered oil-for-food program, which is being probed for abuses by Saddam Hussein's government.


There is no evidence Kojo Annan, based in Nigeria, worked on the Iraq project for Cotecna, which was also hired by the U.S.-led occupation in Iraq until mid-2004.


Answering questions, Annan said: "Naturally I have warm, family relations with my son, but he is in a different field. He is an independent businessman. He is a grown man and I don't get involved with his activities and he doesn't get involved in mine."


U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said the secretary-general had no role in the distribution of contracts, and those who signed the deal maintained they did not know in 1998 that Kojo Annan, then a trainee, worked for Cotecna.


"As I have said earlier, I have no involvement with granting of contracts, either on this Cotecna one, or others," Annan said.


The defunct oil-for-food program began in December 1996 to ease the impact of U.N. sanctions, imposed in mid-1990, on ordinary Iraqis. Baghdad was allowed to sell oil and buy civilian supplies under U.N. secretariat and Security Council supervision. The program was shut down after last year's U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.


Charles Duelfer, a former U.N. weapons inspector, in a lengthy report for the CIA, said Saddam's government earned $7.5 billion in cash by violating U.N. sanctions from the early 1990s onward, mainly by smuggling oil outside the $64 billion U.N. program.


A further $3 billion was earned in kickbacks on oil and other schemes under the program, Duelfer's report said.


OIL-FOR-FOOD ISSUE 'VERY SERIOUS' - DANFORTH


Some six probes are under way in the Republican-led U.S. Congress, while the United Nations has engaged former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to head an independent panel.


U.S. Ambassador John Danforth told reporters the oil-for-food issue was "very serious and deserves thorough investigation."


Danforth said everything should be handed over to the congressional committees for the sake of transparency.


But he added, "I am not for chaos, everyone asking everyone for everything at the same time."


"As soon as the information can be made public, the better off we can be," Danforth said.

Asked if Annan should resign, Danforth said, "I don't think that the United States government rushes to judgment until all the facts are in."

Volcker has refused to comply with congressional requests for documents, saying disclosure would "be damaging to the pursuit of investigative leads, chill participation of witnesses and risk misleading, prejudicial and unfair impressions" of people, institutions and nations.

Volcker's panel will release a preliminary report in January and a definitive report by the middle of next year.

Henry Hyde, an Illinois Republican who chairs the House International Relations Committee, introduced a bill on Nov. 17 demanding increased accountability by the United Nations. He said he had obtained U.N. audits that "identified mismanagement and uneconomical' arrangements" by Cotecna.


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Annan 'Disappointed' by Son's Ties to UN Contract

Nov. 29 (Bloomberg) -- United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was upset to learn his son was getting paid this year by a company under scrutiny for its role in the UN program through which U.S. investigators say deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein stole as much as $21.3 billion.

A UN spokesman said last week that Kojo Annan, 29, received $2,500 a month over four years from Geneva-based Cotecna Inspection SA, which checked humanitarian goods paid for by oil sold under a UN-administered program from 1999 to November 2003. Kojo Annan worked full-time for Cotecna from 1995 to 1997, and as a consultant until the end of 1998. His work was in Africa, according to the company.

Kofi Annan, 66, told reporters today that he thought until last week that his son's relationship with Cotecna ended in 1998. UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said on Nov. 26 that Kojo Annan received a total of $125,000 until February this year as part of a "no-compete'' contract under which he agreed not to start a business in competition with Cotecna.

"Naturally, I was very disappointed and surprised,'' Kofi Annan said at the UN today. "I had been working under the understanding that this ceased in 1998. I had no expectation that the relationship continued.''

'Perception Problem'

In a statement, Cotecna said Kojo Annan was involved "exclusively'' with the company's activities in Nigeria and Ghana. The Annan family is from Ghana.

Annan said he recognized that that there was a "perception problem for the UN of conflict of interest'' with the payments that continued until this year, and that criticism of the UN's management of the oil-for-food program was making the world body's work "much more difficult.''

The U.S. Congress and an independent panel appointed by Annan and led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker are investigating the oil-for-food program, which was designed to isolate Hussein in the decade leading up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Congress plans to review payments Kojo Annan received after 1999, the Wall Street Journal reported today, citing an unidentified member of the House Committee on Government Reform. Cotecna never disclosed that it continued to make payments to him after 1999 even though the committee subpoenaed the company for information about the transactions, the Journal said.

Resignation Not Sought

John Danforth, U.S. ambassador to the UN, said all the oil- for-food issues were "very serious and deserving of very careful attention.'' Danforth told reporters he delivered that message to Kofi Annan at a meeting today in New York.

"Allegations of fraud and bribery and the like are very serious and they go to the integrity of the organization,'' Danforth said. ``We have to get to the bottom of this and let the chips fall where they may.''

The U.S. isn't seeking Annan's resignation, Danforth said. "I do not think the U.S. government rushes to judgment until all the facts are in,'' Danforth said. The ambassador also said he didn't see any reason for Congress to question U.S. funding of the UN.

Cotecna Connection

A Cotecna spokesman said all information on the matter had been turned over the UN and U.S. investigators, the Wall Street Journal reported. Kojo Annan worked for Cotecna as a trainee and consultant, the Journal reported.

There's no evidence that Kojo Annan's relationship with Cotecna affected the contracts the UN awarded, Eckhard said.

The UN program allowed Iraq to sell oil in order to feed its population during the final six years of sanctions, which ended with the Iraq war in March 2003. The U.S. says former regime elements may be using Hussein's billions to fund insurgents in Fallujah and other Iraqi cities.

Iraq cooperated with countries to manipulate its sale of food and medicine, Volcker said in a Nov. 24 interview with television talk show host Charlie Rose. Cotecna employed 85 inspectors to authenticate that lists of goods purchased through the program matched items arriving at four Iraqi border posts.

"The imports were overpriced or of poor quality, so the importer was making a margin much larger than an ordinary commercial margin,'' Volcker said, noting that Russia was one of the countries involved in the program. "There would be some mechanism that at least part of that money would be paid back to either the Iraqi government or Iraqi officials.

Evelyn Suarez, an attorney for the Washington law firm Williams Mullen, which represents Cotecna, didn't return a telephone call seeking comment.


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World Peace Herald

Oil-for-food details surprise U.N. chief
By UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL

Published November 29, 2004
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan says he was surprised to learn the extent of payments made to his son from an Iraq Oil-for-Food Program inspection company.

Annan Monday also said he understands "the perception problem for the United Nations, or the perception of conflict of interests and wrongdoing." But he says he is determined to focus on U.N. reform and implementation of Millennium Development Goals -- projects he knew would be difficult, but now made even more challenging.

It was learned last week, Annan's son, Kojo, had been receiving until February payments as an ex-Cotecna employee for not competing with the Swiss firm the United Nations retained to inspect Oil-for Food shipments for contract compliance. The U.N. previously said the shipments ended in 1998.


Asked if he talked with his son, Annan said: "I did talk to my son. Naturally I was very disappointed and surprised." He did not elaborate.

When U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Danforth was asked if calls for Annan's resignation from some segments of the media were premature, he replied: "I am not for prejudging anything. I am for the absolute laying out of all of the evidence."