The committee probing the UN oil-for-food program announced it will again investigate Secretary-General Kofi Annan after two previously unknown e-mails suggested he may have known more than he claimed about a multimillion-dollar UN contract awarded to the company that employed his son.
One e-mail described an encounter between Annan and officials from the Swiss company Cotecna Inspection SA in late 1998 where its bid for the contract was raised. A second from the same Cotecna executive expressed his confidence that the company would get the bid because of "effective but quiet lobbying" in New York diplomatic circles.
If accurate, the new details could cast doubt on a major finding the UN-backed Independent Inquiry Committee made in March -- that there wasn't enough evidence to show that Annan knew about efforts by Cotecna, which employed his son Kojo, to win the Iraq oil-for-food contract.
Through his spokesman, Annan said he didn't remember the late 1998 meeting. He has repeatedly insisted that he didn't know Cotecna was pursuing a contract with the oil-for-food program.
In a statement Tuesday, the Independent Inquiry Committee said it was "urgently reviewing" the two e-mails, which Cotecna discovered recently and turned over on Monday night.
"Does this raise a question? Sure," said Reid Morden, executive director of the probe.
The oil-for-food program was established in 1996 to help ordinary Iraqis suffering under UN sanctions imposed after Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. It allowed Iraq to sell oil provided most of the proceeds were used to buy humanitarian goods.
It has since become the target of several corruption investigations in the United States and abroad. Annan appointed the Independent Inquiry Committee, led by former US Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, in an effort to settle the issue for good.
A key issue then was whether Annan was guilty of a conflict of interest because the UN awarded the US$10 million-a-year contract to Cotecna while Kojo Annan was a consultant for the company.
In an interim report in March, Volcker's committee accused Cotecna and Kojo Annan of trying to conceal their relationship after the firm won the contract. It said Kofi Annan didn't properly investigate possible conflicts of interest but cleared him of trying to influence the contract or violating UN rules.
The new e-mails will be a new distraction for the UN secretary-general, who had claimed he was exonerated by that report. He had hoped that the committee was finished investigating his personal involvement.
Morden said investigators with the probe had planned to interview Annan soon as part of its investigation into management of oil-for-food. "This certainly adds another topic," he said of the Cotecna e-mails.
In a statement released earlier on Tuesday, Cotecna again denied wrongdoing in getting the contract to certify deals for supplies Iraq imported under oil-for-food.
The first Dec. 4, 1998 e-mail from Michael Wilson, then a vice president of Cotecna and a friend of both Kofi and Kojo Annan's, mentions brief discussions with the secretary-general "and his entourage" at a summit in Paris in 1998.
He wrote that Cotecna's bid was discussed and Cotecna was told it "could count on their support."
UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said UN officials reviewed the records of Annan's Paris trip and found no record of any exchange with Wilson. He said Annan also didn't recall talking to Wilson then.
Wilson's memo also refers to a "KA" who made courtesy calls to various African leaders at the Paris summit. That could be Kojo Annan, then a Cotecna consultant.
Eckhard said it would be reasonable to assume that Kofi and Kojo Annan would have met in Paris if Kojo Annan was there, though he knew of no record of it.
The contents of that e-mail were first reported by the New York Times.
The second e-mail, sent minutes after the first, discussed a meeting that took place three days earlier with UN procurement officials to talk about the contract bid.
Under a section labeled "conclusion," it said: "With the active backing of the Swiss mission in New York and effective but quiet lobbying within the diplomatic circles in New York, we can expect a positive outcome to our efforts."
Most telling about that e-mail, however, was a statement that Annan's "approval" of the bid was required. UN rules in fact did not require Annan to approve those decisions, something officials here have repeatedly stressed.
In that light, Wilson's belief that Annan's approval was necessary sheds light on his thinking at the time toward the secretary-general. Wilson could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Seven people sustained mostly minor injuries in an airplane fire in South Korea, authorities said yesterday, with local media suggesting the blaze might have been caused by a portable battery stored in the overhead bin. The Air Busan plane, an Airbus A321, was set to fly to Hong Kong from Gimhae International Airport in southeastern Busan, but caught fire in the rear section on Tuesday night, the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. A total of 169 passengers and seven flight attendants and staff were evacuated down inflatable slides, it said. Authorities initially reported three injuries, but revised the number
‘BALD-FACED LIE’: The woman is accused of administering non-prescribed drugs to the one-year-old and filmed the toddler’s distress to solicit donations online A social media influencer accused of filming the torture of her baby to gain money allegedly manufactured symptoms causing the toddler to have brain surgery, a magistrate has heard. The 34-year-old Queensland woman is charged with torturing an infant and posting videos of the little girl online to build a social media following and solicit donations. A decision on her bail application in a Brisbane court was yesterday postponed after the magistrate opted to take more time before making a decision in an effort “not to be overwhelmed” by the nature of allegations “so offensive to right-thinking people.” The Sunshine Coast woman —
BORDER SERVICES: With the US-funded International Rescue Committee telling clinics to shut by tomorrow, Burmese refugees face sudden discharge from Thai hospitals Healthcare centers serving tens of thousands of refugees on the Thai-Myanmar border have been ordered shut after US President Donald Trump froze most foreign aid last week, forcing Thai officials to transport the sickest patients to other facilities. The International Rescue Committee (IRC), which funds the clinics with US support, told the facilities to shut by tomorrow, a local official and two camp committee members said. The IRC did not respond to a request for comment. Trump last week paused development assistance from the US Agency for International Development for 90 days to assess compatibility with his “America First” policy. The freeze has thrown
PINEAPPLE DEBATE: While the owners of the pizzeria dislike pineapple on pizza, a survey last year showed that over 50% of Britons either love or like the topping A trendy pizzeria in the English city of Norwich has declared war on pineapples, charging an eye-watering ￡100 (US$124) for a Hawaiian in a bid to put customers off the disputed topping. Lupa Pizza recently added pizza topped with ham and pineapple to its account on a food delivery app, writing in the description: “Yeah, for ￡100 you can have it. Order the champagne too! Go on, you monster!” “[We] vehemently dislike pineapple on pizza,” Lupa co-owner Francis Wolf said. “We feel like it doesn’t suit pizza at all,” he said. The other co-owner, head chef Quin Jianoran, said they kept tinned pineapple
RSS