Anti-sleaze team examines 'Annan meeting memo'
By Francis Harris in Washington
(Filed: 15/06/2005)
Anti-sleaze investigators launched an urgent inquiry into Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary-general, yesterday after the discovery of a document appearing to contradict his statements about the award of a multi-million pound humanitarian aid contract.
The Independent Inquiry Committee looking into the $64 billion UN-administered oil-for-food programme in Iraq said they were urgently reviewing the new information.
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 Mr Annan denied that he had discussions with Cotecna

The statement offered few additional details.
A copy of the document, seen by The Daily Telegraph, stated that Mr Annan and his entourage met Michael Wilson, an executive of the Swiss firm Cotecna, and apparently discussed the company's bid for an oil-for-food contract.
Mr Annan yesterday denied that he had discussed the contract with Cotecna representatives.
Any such meeting could breach UN rules on conflicts of interest and would intensify calls for Mr Annan's resignation.
The Cotecna e-mail, signed by Mr Wilson, stated that a previously undocumented meeting took place at a summit meeting in Paris in November 1998.
It said: We had brief discussions with the SG [secretary-general] and his entourage.
''Their collective advice was that we should respond as best as we could to the Q&A session of (December 1 1998) and that we could count on their support.
The question and answer session took place as scheduled between Cotecna and the UN.
Ten days later, the Swiss firm was awarded the $10 million (£6.25 million) a year contract to inspect humanitarian goods supplied to Iraq.
The UN responded yesterday by questioning the accuracy of the document.
Fred Eckhard, Mr Annan's spokesman, said: The secretary-general has no recollection of any such exchange with Mr Wilson and the views attributed to him in the memo that he was supportive of Cotecna receiving a contract could not have come from him because he had no knowledge that Cotecna was up for a contract. 
A report issued by the IIC three months ago said Mr Annan was interviewed several times and it stated: He denied that he knew, at any time prior to late January 1999, that Cotecna had bid on and been awarded the United Nations contract.
Mr Annan has accepted that Mr Wilson was an old family friend, that he had asked Cotecna to give his son a job, that he had twice met Cotecna's boss Elie Massey and that he knew his son was employed as a consultant for the firm. But that did not mean that he knew Cotecna was seeking a UN contract and he had no role in the award, he said. 
The report related that Mr Annan had said that he had not spoken to Mr Wilson about Cotecna and potential conflict-of-interest issues before hearing of [an] impending news article in January 1999.
Cotecna yesterday denied that it had committed any wrongdoing in its bid for the $10 million a year contract. 
The latest developments in the oil-for-food saga are causing further damage to an already demoralised UN.
The secretary general initially stated that he had been completely exonerated by investigators over the Cotecna contract, but it is becoming ever clearer that the issue will not die.
Yesterday, the UN spokesman accepted that the multiple inquiries were damaging Mr Annan's attempts to re-launch the organisation with a wide-ranging reform programme.
The endless revelations had made that a lot harder, Mr Eckhard said.
The centrepiece of the UN plan is a bid to remake the UN's security council, the most powerful diplomatic forum in the world.
The scheme involves increasing membership from 15 to 25, with new permanent seats for Germany, Japan, India, Brazil and possibly two others. But it is already fighting for survival.
America objects to German membership, China objects to Japanese membership and a large collection of jealous smaller powers have pledged to oppose various applicants.