Annan accepts claim of failure on oil-for-food

By Mark Turner 
September 7, 2005 
Financial Times
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/2b894102-1fbc-11da-853a-00000e2511c8.html 

Kofi Annan, UN secretary-general, on Wednesday said he accepted responsibility for serious management failures in the oil-for-food programme, and the UN secretariat as a whole, but his aides insisted he had no intention of leaving office before his term expired at the end of next year.
His mea culpa came after the independent inquiry into the programme found “the cumulative management performance of the secretary-general fell short of the standards that the UN should strive to maintain”.
The Volcker committee also said Louise Frechette, Mr Annan’s deputy, “did not provide the degree of leadership and oversight that the complex programme re-quired”, including a failure to include “any reference to the kickback scheme in the many reports forwarded to the Security Council”.
But the committee affirmed there was no credible evidence that Mr Annan influenced the UN’s decision to hire Cotecna, an inspection company that employed Kojo Annan, his son. The evidence was “not reasonably sufficient” to conclude that Mr Annan knew it had submitted a contract in 1998.
The investigators did find, however, that Kojo Annan had played an “active part” in Cotecna’s efforts to secure the contract. Among other evidence, it cites an e-mail in which Kojo told Michael Wilson, from Cotecna, that he would get information from “my people” in New York.
Those people, the committee said, were Diana Mills-Aryee, a long-time family friend working in the UN’s procurement department, and Wagaye Assebe, Kofi Annan’s personal assistant.
The report cites a fax from Kojo Annan to Elie Massey, Cotecna chairman, suggesting “our friend” (most likely Ms Assebe, the report says) would “ensure” a letter about Mr Massey’s “pet project”, a UN lottery proposal, would be seen by Kofi Annan. “Kojo Annan ac-knowledged that he received inside information from Ms Assebe regarding the pet project,” the report said.
The committee noted that Kojo Annan bought a car in Nigeria in his father’s name, as UN employees qualified for a discount. In November 1998, Kojo asked for Ms Assebe’s help in the matter.
She prepared a note for Kofi Annan saying Kojo was trying to buy a car in his name, But could not recall what she did with it. Kofi Annan did not recall the note, and said he would not have permitted the UN to send a letter allowing Kojo to buy a car in his name.