Annan Holds Full Staff Meeting To Address Multiple U.N. Scandals
BY BENNY AVNI - Special to the Sun
April 6, 2005

UNITED NATIONS - Secretary-General Annan yesterday struggled to display that he is still supported by U.N. staffers, while attempting to boost morale as his leadership is questioned.
Only twice in this rare meeting with thousands of staff members, who gathered yesterday morning in the historic auditorium of the General Assembly, did Mr. Annan directly address oil-for-food or other U.N. scandals. In one of those two references, he did, however, go further than ever indicating wrongdoing by his son, Kojo. In the second scandal reference, Mr. Annan offered a warm defense of his former chief of staff, Iqbal Riza.
Kojo was apparently associated somehow with the oil-for-food program, Mr. Annan said, departing from past comments expressing disappointment in his son. A U.N. spokesman, Fred Eckhard, later released a statement insisting Mr. Annan did not mean to imply he knew of any connection, other than what was revealed in last week's Volcker Committee report, between Kojo Annan and oil for food.
The secretary-general called Mr. Riza a man of integrity, even though the Volcker Committee found that the former chief of staff and longtime Annan confidant shredded relevant documents one day after the Security Council established the independent inquiry. Without being asked for any explanation of the committee's report, Mr. Annan said, Any of us who know Iqbal Riza could hardly accept such statements.
Addressing staff concerns, as highlighted in a recent U.N-commissioned integrity report and numerous press accounts, Mr. Annan told his troops to ignore the press. Don't believe the caricature of the organization that you read in the press, he said. We are dealing with people with enormous resources who are organized, coordinated, and it's relentless.
U.N. workers obviously don't all read the Sun, the current chief of staff, Mark Malloch Brown, told The New York Sun. He called the meeting a very important reconnection with the staff, which is long overdue. Mr. Annan, he said, comes from amongst them and still there is huge grassroots support for him, despite complaints by the staff union about senior management.
There are still a lot of unanswered questions, a member of the staff union, Guy Canduso, told reporters after the meeting. This should be done on a regular basis, not only when there is crisis.
While Mr. Annan received applause for defending the United Nations' viability and denigrating the press, many staffers cheered as two colleagues questioned him about management failures in the vast bureaucracy. Curiously, both addressed problems at only one sub-department, which employs simultaneous interpreters in the Arabic language.
One Arab translator, Bashir al-Okla, asked if Mr. Annan would interfere if a management issue was brought to his attention. Mr. Annan promised due process if facts are presented. Mr. al-Okla told the Sun later that he was satisfied with the answer, but when asked about the specific complaint, he said he was instructed not to disclose it to the press.
One employee, Mario Cianci, decided to approach the press on his own. He said that his direct supervisor, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Resources Management Rosemary McCreery, who emceed the question-and-answer part of the meeting with Mr. Annan, deliberately prohibited him from asking a question, even though he was the first to raise his hand.
Mr. Cianci told reporters he had worked at the United Nations for 23 years, starting as a young idealist. Despite staff allegations of cronyism and abuse of power, nothing is ever done, he said. If you suffer from idealism, you come here, it's cured very quickly, he said. Ms. McCreery, who stood by, refused to comment even as Mr. Cianci said he feared retribution from his interview.