UNITED NATIONS - Some main points of the latest interim report, released Tuesday, from the independent committee investigating the scandal surrounding the UN oil-for-food program for Iraq.
The report focused on a possible conflict of interest arising from the 1998 award of a humanitarian goods inspection contract to Swiss firm Cotecna which, at the time, employed UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's son Kojo.
KOFI ANNAN
-- No evidence Annan exerted any "affirmative or undue influence" in the selection of Cotecna for the contract
-- Insufficient evidence to show Annan aware in 1998 that Cotecna was bidding for the contract
-- Inquiry initiated by Annan, once possibility of conflict of interest arose, was "inadequate." Annan should have referred the matter for a thorough and independent investigation
KOJO ANNAN
-- Cotecna made false statements to the public, the UN and the inquiry committee by asserting Kojo Annan had resigned his consultancy in 1998
-- Kojo Annan "actively participated" in efforts by Cotecna to conceal true nature of its continuing relationship with him
-- Kojo Annan "intentionally deceived" the secretary general about his continuing financial relationship with Cotecna
-- "Significant questions" remain about Kojo Annan's actions and the integrity of his business and financial dealings with respect to the oil-for-food program
CONTRACT BIDDING PROCESS AND COTECNA
-- UN violated bidding rules by failing to ask Cotecna to submit a financial statement
-- No account taken of Swiss criminal investigation against Cotecna CEO Robert Massey
CONDUCT OF SENIOR UN OFFICIALS
-- Annan's former chief of staff Iqbal Riza acted "imprudently" in ordering the destruction of three years of documents (1997-1999) last year, one day after the UN Security Council approved the independent oil-for-food inquiry
-- The head of the UN's internal watchdog, Dileep Nair, misused oil-for-food program funds to hire a special assistant who, in two years, performed virtually no program-related work
03/29/2005 19:32 GMT