UNITED NATIONS, April 7: In a rare staff meeting, Secretary General Kofi Annan has vowed to make the UN more accountable and transparent, and said he wanted “us all to be proud of the organization we work for…and be determined to move ahead”, despite scandals which have undermined the world body.

“To see the institution you work for being hammered, day in and day out, whether it is right or not, it does hurt and it does affect morale,” Mr Annan observed in the meeting earlier this week.

Mr Annan acknowledged that there were times during the past three years that he himself had been discouraged. “I know this has cast a shadow over all of us,” he said of the ongoing investigation into the UN’s handling of Iraq’s oil-for-food programme.