Fresh information involving the Secretary-General forces the reopening of UN inquiry
THE steady drip of revelations about the Oil-for-Food scandal threatens to force Kofi Annan from his job as United Nations Secretary-General before the end of his term. Speculation is mounting at UN headquarters in New York that Mr Annan will announce his resignation at a summit of world leaders in the city in September, in the larger interests of the organisation. Ya gotta take one for the family, Kofi...
It follows the reopening of the Volcker inquiry into the scandal, part of which had focused on the award of a border inspection contract in Iraq to a company employing Mr Annan's son, Kojo. One senior UN official told The Times that the UN leader could present his resignation as a means of sparing the organisation further embarrassment. "It would be a way of regaining the initiative," he said.
Kofi, let's go fishing...
Asked about the rumours of his resignation at the September summit, Mr Annan told New York magazine last month: "That's a question for the future. In life, you cannot rule out. You cannot say never or for ever." In an interview for the French newspaper Le Figaro today, however, he denies "absolutely" any plans to quit.
And, what, go back to... Ghana?
Once a diplomatic superstar who won the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize, Mr Annan is now the target of a full-scale investigation by a UN commission and the US Congress.
I thought the UN won it, not Kofi. Not that he wouldn't take credit for it...
After the stress of the Iraq war, the normally sunny UN Secretary-General became haggard and lost his voice. Aides cut his schedule and ordered him to take a holiday. On one occasion he skipped a summit in Africa so that he could return home to New York. One ambassador said that Mr Annan's mood has been fluctuating ever since like a "sine curve".
When you're close to being busted, you're probably pretty moody.
Mr Annan, a Ghanaian, married to a Swede, has been personally linked to the Oil-for-Food scandal because of Kojo, one of two children by his Nigerian first wife.
Thanks, Pops!
In 1998 the UN awarded a lucrative border inspection contract in Iraq to Cotecna Inspection Services, a Swiss firm that employed Kojo Annan. Kofi Annan denies that he knew about Cotecna's interest in the $10 million (£5.5 million) annual contract until after it was awarded.
Oh, wow. Look at that. Doesn't my son work for them?
A UN inquiry, led by Paul Volcker, the former chairman of the US Federal Reserve, found that Kofi Annan "could have been alerted" to Cotecna's efforts to get the UN contract at "several points". But it found no conclusive proof. The inquiry concluded in March that "the evidence is not reasonably sufficient to show that the Secretary-General knew that Cotecna had submitted a bid".
That was when he was "exonerated", right?
The Volcker commission's two top investigators in the case resigned in protest. Calling the inquiry's finding "flawed", one of the investigators gave the US Congress six boxes of documents from the Volcker files. They are now the subject of a court battle. On Tuesday Mr Volcker had to reopen the investigation into Mr Annan after the release of a potentially devastating Cotecna memorandum suggesting that the UN chief secretly backed the company's bid. The e-mailed memo was written by Michael Wilson, the son of the former Ghanaian Ambassador to Switzerland and a childhood friend of Kojo Annan, who considers Kofi Annan his "uncle".
Thanks, Uncle Kofi!
Mr Wilson was a Cotecna executive at the time, but left the company in 2000 and joined Kojo Annan on the board of Air Harbour Technologies, founded by Hani Yamani, son of the former Saudi Oil Minister. Recently Mr Wilson has been embroiled in a separate UN scandal involving suspected kickbacks in the rebuilding of the Geneva headquarters of the World Intellectual Property Organisation.
Thanks, Uncle Kofi!
In the newly released Cotecna memo, dated December 4, 1998, Mr Wilson reports discussions with the UN Secretary-General at a francophone summit in Paris in November 1998. The memo says: "We had brief discussions with the SG and his entourage. Their collective advice was that we should respond as best as we could to the Q & A session of the 1-12-98 and that we could count on their support." The "1-12-98" session was a meeting Cotecna had scheduled with UN procurement officials about its bid for a UN contract, which the firm won ten days later. Cotecna acknowledged this week that the document "may result in speculation about the procurement of its Oil-for-Food authentication contract". But the company insisted it "obtained that contract fairly and on the basis of price". Fred Eckhard, the chief UN spokesman, said Kofi Annan had "no recollection" of meeting Mr Wilson on the 1998 trip. But he was unable to say whether the UN chief had met his son, Kojo, then a Cotecna consultant, during the trip.
I've got a son named Kojo? I don't recall.
Mr Wilson's lawyer said: "Mr Wilson never met or had any discussion with the United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, on the issue of the bid for the UN contract by Cotecna at the francophone summit, during the bidding process, or at any time prior to the award of the contract." Diplomats say they can foresee a scenario in which Mr Annan magnanimously resigns at the September summit on UN reform.
Would that get him off the hook on any possible charges down the road?
The Volcker commission's final report was originally due this month but has been pushed back. Sources say that it may even be delayed until after the summit. That would allow Mr Annan to step aside before Mr Volcker delivers his findings. Mr Volcker's investigators have recently been to Britain, seeking to answer "significant questions" about Kojo Annan's business dealings.
Why do the powers that be seem so concerned about letting this bastard skate on this?