Kofi Annan Got Out Clean from Oil Scandal

Investigation

Yesterday independent commission for investigation of the power abuses within UN program Oil for Food presented its report to the UN Security Council. As it was expected, the report talked a lot about ineffective work of UN and its leaders. However, the commission did not put direct blame on the Secretary General Kofi Annan. In the same time, the observers think that the timing of the report is very unfortunate for the Secretary General: the next week’ session of UN General Assembly will be examining the possibility for serious reforms within the leadership of this most influential international organization.

It is obvious that the Organization of United Nations, which was created in the mid 1940’s of XX century to prevent the threat of global war, is not doing its job right. Moreover, after the recent corruption scandals, a lot of people started to talk abou UN becoming an obsolete.

One of the latest big scandals has hit hard the Oil for Food program for Iraq, which was introduced in mid 1990’s as a punishment for Baghdad’s attack on Kuwait in 1990. As it was found out, during the realization of this program UN officials had a lot of faults bordering with serious crimes. However, so far the charges were brought up only against very few United Nations employees, including former procurement officer Alexander Yakovlev. He was incriminated with bribes and money laundering on the amount of about $1 million within Oil for Food program.

The independent commission, headed by former chief of the US Federal Reserve Paul Volker, established other corrupted connections, which lead straight to the upper echelon of the UN. For instance, the commission expressed an opinion that Kofi Annan knew about the intentions of Swiss company Cotecna to get the contract for rebuilding the Iraqi economy. The problem is that Cotecna was employing son of the Secretary General – Kojo Annan. This March, Volker's commission lifted the suspicions of corruption from Kofi Annan, but left in the report the accusation of mismanagement commited by UN Secretary General. Moreover, the commission filed a lot of complaints against Benon Sevan, head of the Oil for Food program.

Yesterday’s report of Volker’s commission, presented to the UN Security Council, did not give all answers about the UN activities within the program. The report contains the recommendations to increase the role of the Security Council while appointing a head for different programs. There is also a recommendation to create an independent organ, which would be responsible for the audit of UN programs. According to the commission opinion, the Security Council should have larger powers for coordination of the organizational activities within UN programs.

The report also contains direct accusations against some countries and companies, which profited from the Oil for Food program. For instance, it says that some Russian companies through Iraqi Embassy in Moscow paid to Saddam Hussein regime more than $52 million as a fee for their participation in the program. According to the commission, former Iraqi leader received $225.9 million in commissions. Almost third of this amount Hussein got as cash, which was received by Iraqi embassies in different countries, including Egypt, Greece, Italy, Malaysia, Russia, Switzerland, Syria, Turkey and Vietnam.

The report does not have direct accusation addressed to high ranking UN employees. Not long before the report presentation, the media published information about Volker’s commission findings of new facts that prove General Secretary’s knowledge of Cotecna’ intentions to get Iraqi contracts. However, the report does not mention Kofi Annan or his son’s name.

However, the observers say that Volker’s commission picked a bad time for Kofi Annan to present its report. The General Assembly session opens up next week, where participants will discuss the ways of how to reform the UN. The corruption scandals would be tying Annan’s hands in the time, when he tries to protect his personal powers within the organization.

Yesterday, after the Volker report’s presentation, General Secretary took an opportunity and during his speech in front of Security Council admitted his personal responsibility for the serious flaws with the program Oil for Food. Kofi Annan also expressed “deep regrets” about the facts of the “wide-spread corruption among the small amount of UN officers.” In the same time, the Secretary General said that he is happy that the commission could not find any evidence of his direct participation in Cotecna dealings.

by http://www.kommersant.com

All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 08, 2005 - http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.html?docId=606889

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