Posted on 11/29/2004 11:11:03 PM PST by Former Military Chick
The United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, said yesterday that he had not known that his son had continued receiving payments until February of this year from a Swiss inspection company being investigated for suspected fraud and abuses in the oil-for-food program in Iraq.
Speaking to reporters, Mr. Annan denied any wrongdoing or even knowledge of the fact that Cotecna Inspection Services had paid his son, Kojo, $2,500 a month for four years after the company and the United Nations said their relationship had ended.
Mr. Annan said that although he and his son had discussed his son's relationship with Cotecna, a Geneva-based company that was a major United Nations contractor, he was "disappointed" that he had apparently not been told the full story.
"Naturally, I was very disappointed and surprised, yes," Mr. Annan said when asked by reporters at the United Nations whether he had discussed the payments with his son after they were initially disclosed Friday in The New York Sun.
Mr. Annan added that the payments had created a "perception problem" for the United Nations, which has been accused of mismanaging the $64 billion oil-for-food program. It was aimed at permitting Iraq under Saddam Hussein to sell oil so it could import goods to offset the debilitating effects of sanctions on the Iraqi people.
He also said that the scandals surrounding the program, which was in effect from 1996 until the American invasion in 2003, would complicate the organization's ability to pursue his ambitious international agenda.
"Obviously in this climate and with this oil-for-food discussions, it is not going to be easy," Mr. Annan said.
The disclosure about the continuing Cotecna payments to Mr. Annan's son comes at a time of strained relations between Mr. Annan and the United States. The Bush administration has been angered by Mr. Annan's reluctance to commit staff members to Iraq in large numbers and by comments he has made about the war. Leaders of House and Senate committees investigating abuses in the oil-for-food program have accused Mr. Annan of hiding behind the independent commission he established, under pressure to investigate the program, to avoid providing them with access to United Nations staff and documents they have requested.
In an interview yesterday, Representatives Christopher Shays, a Connecticut Republican who heads a House Government Reform subcommittee that is investigating the program, accused Cotecna of misleading the committee about the payments. He said that the documents had been supplied in response to a subcommittee subpoena, and that he had instructed his staff director, Larry Halloran, to ask Cotecna about the discrepancy.
"We want an explanation about why we were provided documents that misled us into believing that the company's relationship with Kojo Annan ended in '98," Mr. Shays said.
Seth Goldschlager, a spokesman for Cotecna in Paris, said Cotecna had supplied Mr. Shays's panel and a Senate panel investigating the program information about the payments in August.
He also said Cotecna had made payments to Kojo Annan to prevent him from working in West Africa for its competitors. Mr. Goldschlager stated in an e-mail message that those "noncompete" payments were required by Swiss law.
A similar statement was made Friday by Fred Eckhard, the United Nations spokesman, when he confirmed that Kojo Annan was paid $2,500 monthly - a total of $125,000 - by Cotecna from the start of 2000 through last February. Mr. Eckhard also said there was nothing illegal or improper about such payments or the awarding of the multimillion dollar contract to Cotecna to monitor Iraqi imports.
But Mr. Shays said yesterday that the disclosure of the extra years of payments renewed questions about conflicts of interest and that his subcommittee intended to continue pursuing the matter.
Mr. Goldschlager said he had no comment on why the company's payments to Mr. Annan ended in February, just as Iraqis were starting to make accusations of abuses in the oil-for-food program, but he insisted that Cotecna had told not only Senate and House committees investigating the program about the payments, but also the independent commission that was appointed by Mr. Annan.
An investigator in the commission, which is headed by Paul A. Volcker, the former chairman of the United States Federal Reserve Bank, said his panel had learned about the payments last August. "It's really old news to us," said the investigator, who spoke on condition that he not be identified.
Yes, you know he's guilty when he starts to use Clinton words.
Now that it has hit the old media, Bush could:
Require Annan to resign. Immediately.
Withhold US support, pending proof of reform in UN financial management. Put a time limit on this.
Include the threat to remove the UN from NY, if above measures are not taken.
It's way past time for Kofi to go and take the whole rat infested UN with him.
The fruit doesn't fall far from the tree.
VERY sensible steps!
"Gravity. Not just a good idea; it's the law!" The weeds of globalism bear bitter fruit..
ya, its called corruption.
$125,000 is a pathetic skim off of billions and billions of dollars going to Saddam. Kofi and son are seriously brain damaged if they don't have healthy Swiss (offshore) bank accounts.
My note to Cotecna Chairman Mr. E.G. Massey:
Mr. E.G. Massey,
I would be pleased to accept a position with Cotecna with terms similar to those Mr. Kojo Annan worked under.
I will work under an open ended “no compete” clause for up to 20 years. I vow that I will not work for any competitor of Cotecna, worldwide, for the sum of US $5000. per month for a minimum of four years.
I would prefer to have my “no compete” paycheck directly deposited to my bank account. Please forward the contact information of the person in Cotecna’s personnel who can set this up for me.
Thank You,
RJL
In this case Perception IS Reality
The only perception problem I see, is that people have the right perception about Kofi and company. And that's only a problem for Kofi and company. Excellent!
Amazes me how we can lump these guys together based on language. But, if Clinton were in office, he would be trying to get this swept under the rug.
Frankly what should we have expected, with a bunch like those working in the UN?
The headline is true ONLY if perception=corruption.
My $.02.
See, Kofi, the problem with being a lying, stealing scumbag is that some people are inevitably, dispite the best efforts of CBS and the NYT, come to believe that you're a lying, stealing scumbag. Of course, it's easy work and the gig pays well, so if you don't want it, lots of other people will be happy to take your place.
Sure, nothing to see here. Move along.
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