Investigators sift Cotecna papers

Jason Carroll and Justine Redman
December 17, 2004
CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/12/16/annan.son.oil/index.html
From CNN's Jason Carroll and Justine Redman
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. congressional investigators are studying thousands of pages of documents handed over by Cotecna, the cargo inspection company that employed Kojo Annan in the late 1990s.
Annan is the son of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
During Annan's time as a consultant at Cotecna, the firm won a lucrative contract to authenticate food and medicine shipments to Iraq under the U.N.-monitored oil for food.
A CNN review of those documents Thursday found none that referenced the oil-for-food program or Iraq, but a handful did refer to activities around the United Nations, which Annan and Cotecna insist he did no work for.
Annan, 31, worked for Cotecna for two years, from 1995 to 1997 on pre-shipment inspections in Nigeria and Ghana, according to the company, which continued to pay him as a consultant in 1998, the same year Cotecna won the U.N. contract for the oil-for-food program.
The United Nations paid Cotecna $66 million over five years, according to a U.N. official.
Cotecna has said there was no connection between the U.N. contract and the Annan family ties, and Kojo Annan told CNN earlier this week that he never worked directly or indirectly in any U.N. business.
However, congressional investigators pointed to several faxes between Kojo Annan and Cotecna:
-- An August 28, 1998 memo from Cotecna to Annan and three colleagues, following a business conference in Durban, South Africa, said, Your work and the contacts established at this meeting should ideally be followed up at the September 1998 U.N. General Assembly in New York.
-- An October 26, 1998, invoice faxed by Annan to Cotecna asked to be paid for 15 days in New York for the General Assembly and various meetings relating to 'special projects.' That expense report also asked to be paid for six days in Abuja during my father's visit to Nigeria.
-- Another fax from Cotecna to Annan referred to matters in the Middle East and obtaining consultative status at the U.N. for International Federation of Inspection Agencies, a trade association.
Reached at his home on Lagos, Nigeria, Annan told CNN, I never attended the General Assembly but was in New York for the time of the General Assembly to follow up with African government heads, as all were there at the same time.
Annan described his reason for being there as networking -- the same reason he said he attended the World Bank and African Development Bank conferences that year.
I never, ever met with U.N. officials, Annan said.
Cotecna has asserted that Annan's work was limited to West Africa.
The Middle East reference in the fax, Annan said, was a follow up on a contact living in Egypt who was the son of a former Ghanaian President to help us on a project in Ghana. I never even went to Egypt for that.
As for the consultative status question, Annan said the founder of Cotecna had asked him if I knew anyone they could talk to in the U.N. to get IFIA, which is a body of global inspection agents, registered as consultative status at the U.N.
Annan said, It was a totally non-commercial venture, but even then I never did put them in touch with anyone.
Cotecna, which has described Annan as a very productive and dedicated employee, said the company is continuing to cooperate fully with investigators and defended Annan.
Talking to people who attend U.N. meetings does not mean the one is talking about U.N. matters, said Cotecna spokesman Seth Goldschlager. You can meet people who may be talking about developing markets in their countries.
Cotecna is distressed by the continuing release of selective leaks of partial information, which by definition is misleading, Goldschlager continued. He predicted investigators will conclude the limited and technical role the company played in the U.N. oil-for-food program was carried out professionally in full accordance with the law.
In Washington Thursday, Kofi Annan told reporters, The oil for food is something I am concerned about, and would want to get to the bottom of it.
I am anxious to see the investigations concluded as quickly as possible, so that we can put it behind us and focus on the essential work of the United Nations.
Kojo Annan has already been interviewed by U.N. investigators. Asked if he would talk to congressional investigators, he said, Absolutely.
A separate independent inquiry set up by the U.N. and headed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker is the most far-reaching in the history of the United Nations, Annan said in a speech to the private Council on Foreign Relations.
All U.N. staff have been instructed to cooperate or face disciplinary measures, including dismissal, he said.
The oil-for-food program allowed Saddam Hussein's government to sell oil and use the revenue to buy food, medicine and other necessities. Investigations have found that Saddam skimmed billions of dollars from the program using bribes and kickbacks, some involving top U.N. and foreign government officials.

--CNN's Jeff Koinange, Jonathan Wald, Paul Courson, and Phil Hirschkorn contributed to this story.