Official Calls Annan Talks 'Innocent'
The U.N. chief's meetings with a firm that employed his son had nothing to do with the awarding of an Iraq contract, his aide says.
By Maggie Farley
Times Staff Writer

March 24, 2005

UNITED NATIONS — Secretary-General Kofi Annan met three times with executives of a Swiss company that employed his son, before and after it won a lucrative U.N. contract in Iraq, Annan's chief of staff confirmed Wednesday.

Mark Malloch Brown told reporters that the meetings between the secretary-general and executives of Cotecna Inspection were innocent encounters and had nothing to do with the company's contract or payments to his son.

The acknowledgment came as the United Nations and Annan face increasing scrutiny over various scandals, causing diplomats to wonder whether the secretary-general can complete the final two years of his term and oversee the reforms he has proposed to help the world body bolster its credibility.

The SG has been on shaky ground. We're waiting to see whether the Volcker report is the last straw, said a Security Council diplomat who did not want to be named. 

Paul Volcker, the former Federal Reserve chairman heading an internal investigation of the U.N.'s $64-billion oil for food program in Iraq, is expected to say in a report Tuesday whether Kojo Annan used his family ties to help Cotecna Inspection win a $60-million contract.

Malloch Brown was responding to published reports Wednesday that said Cotecna had paid Annan's son $300,000 partly through front companies — almost double the amount previously disclosed. Cotecna acknowledges rerouting the payments at Kojo's request but disputes the amount, a company spokeswoman said.

Whatever his son may have done, the secretary-general expects to be fully vindicated of any allegations that he had a role in awarding a goods-inspection contract in 1998 to the Swiss firm, Malloch Brown said.

The fact is that Kojo has confirmed himself that he misled his father, Malloch Brown said, referring to the son's statements about the payments. We believe on Tuesday the secretary-general will be exonerated of any wrongdoing.

Malloch Brown held a news conference hours after the reports by the Financial Times and the Italian business daily Il Sole 24 Ore hit newsstands. 

Kofi Annan has been reeling from a series of scandals, political attacks and internal problems, including sexual exploitation by U.N. peacekeepers in various missions. In December, a handful of Republican lawmakers called for him to resign over mismanagement and corruption in the oil-for-food program.

In January, Annan began to fight back, shaking up his Cabinet and embarking on reforms to make the world body more transparent and efficient. In an interview then, the newly appointed Malloch Brown worried that Annan might survive the storm only to be capsized by a puff of wind from an unexpected direction. He added, I don't think Kojo will be that puff. 

On Monday, Kofi Annan enjoyed his strongest moment in months as he unveiled reforms that aim to restore the U.N.'s role at the center of global security and development decision-making. But just a day after the presentation, more than a year in the making, the honeymoon was over, Malloch Brown said. 

It does make me realize that this story is firmly manacled to our ankles and it's hard to escape from, and there are many who will continue to make sure that we don't escape from it, he said. 

Malloch Brown confirmed that Annan had met three times with Cotecna Chairman Elie-Georges Massey and his son Robert, the chief executive. 

The first time was in January 1997 over tea in Davos, Switzerland, during the World Economic Forum. The men discussed Annan's native country of Ghana, where Cotecna had a contract with the government, a company spokeswoman said.

In September 1998, three months before Cotecna won the oil-for-food contract, Annan received Elie-Georges Massey at the U.N. to discuss Massey's idea for an international lottery for charity, a concept that didn't go anywhere at the end of the day, the spokeswoman said. 

She confirmed Wednesday that the company had agreed to pay the younger Annan through other companies held by Cotecna's owners, after he was embarrassed over an article in Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper that raised questions about the award of a U.N. contract to a company that employed the secretary-general's son. 

The third meeting occurred in early 1999 when Elie-Georges Massey sought out Annan at a public function in Geneva to apologize for any embarrassment the article might have caused. All three meetings were brief, casual or social, Malloch Brown said, and had nothing to do with the Iraq contract or other U.N. business.

In November, Annan said he was very disappointed and surprised after revelations that his son had taken about $175,000 in non-compete payments from Cotecna for four years after he said he had severed his ties to the company.

Cotecna and Kojo Annan had previously said that he had stopped working as a consultant for the company in West Africa in December 1998, the month it won a contract to inspect goods entering Iraq under the oil-for-food program.

Last November, Kojo Annan's lawyer told the Volcker committee that Cotecna had continued to give him $2,500 a month, plus the use of a company credit card, for more than five years, through February 2004. 

The company spokeswoman said the $300,000 cited by the Financial Times did not correspond to the firm's calculation of about $160,000 paid to Kojo Annan from all sources.