Ex-Oil-For-Food Chief to Be Report's Focus
By NICK WADHAMS
The Associated Press
Friday, July 8, 2005; 10:28 PM
UNITED NATIONS -- The former chief of the U.N. oil-for-food program will be a key focus of a third interim report from investigators probing alleged wrongdoing in the $64 billion program, an official said Friday.
Meanwhile, the U.N. staff union condemned the treatment of Joseph Stephanides, the only U.N. staffer to be fired so far over oil-for-food allegations. He has appealed and expects to get a hearing by the end of July.
I am terribly aggrieved by this great injustice against me, Stephanides told The Associated Press. I have committed no wrongdoing.
Stephanides was accused of interfering in the bidding process for a company to inspect humanitarian goods entering Iraq under oil-for-food.
While Stephanides has been in the spotlight recently, it's the chief of the program, Benon Sevan, who has faced some of the strongest criticism from the Independent Inquiry Committee. An earlier report from the probe accused him of a grave conflict of interest managing the tainted program.
Investigators with the Independent Inquiry Committee have more information about Sevan, and he will feature prominently in its next report, to be released by the end of the month, Volcker committee spokesman Mike Holtzman said.
The report will tie up several loose ends from previous interim reports including our inquiry into Sevan, Holtzman said.
The oil-for-food program aimed to help ordinary Iraqis suffering under U.N. sanctions imposed after Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, but it has become the target of several corruption investigations since the Iraqi leader was ousted.
The committee, led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, had earlier found that Sevan's conduct in soliciting oil deals from Iraq was ethically improper and seriously undermined the integrity of the United Nations.
Sevan's lawyer, Eric Lewis, said he had not heard from the committee recently about Sevan.
I've had no substantive communication with the committee about any findings, Lewis said. I've talked to them but I haven't talked to them on any substantive matters.
The earlier report never said Sevan took kickbacks, but it questioned $160,000 in cash which Sevan said he received from his aunt in his native Cyprus between 1999 and 2003.
The report called the money unexplained wealth and noted that the aunt, who recently died, was a retired government photographer living on a modest pension.
The United Nations has taken no action against him because the Volcker committee's work continues.
Investigators were also expected to return to Kojo Annan, the son of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. In a second earlier report, Volcker's team accused Kojo Annan of concealing the extent of his relationship with a Swiss company that won a contract under oil-for-food.
Holtzman said investigators were still probing Kojo Annan and might not be finished in time for the third interim report, set for release in the last week of July.