UNITED NATIONS, Sept 7: UN chief Kofi An nan on Wednesday ruled out resigning after an independent probe highlighted evidence of corruption and serious lapses in the management of the oil-for-food program.
“I don’t anticipate anyone to resign,” Annan told reporters after he told the Security Council he was assuming responsibility for the management lapses. “We are carrying on with our work.”
Mr Annan said that his son Kojo would have to “speak for himself” in connection with the probe into his role in the oil-for-food program.
The UN chief told the Security Council that he was “not diligent or effective enough” in pursuing a probe after learning that the Swiss trade firm Cotecna that employed his son Kojo had won a 10-million-dollar contract under the oil-for-food program in 1998.
“I deeply regret that,” the secretary general said, after a report by an independent panel led by former US Federal Reserve Board chairman Paul Volcker blamed him for serious management lapses in the program.
Asked about his son’s role in the scandal, the UN chief said: “the report speaks for itself. He (Kojo) will have to speak for himself.”
Last month, the Volcker panel said a recently discovered e-mail “raises a further question about the secretary general’s knowledge of” his son’s dealings with Cotecna and “appears authentic.”
The e-mail indicated that then-Cotecna vice president Michael Wilson, an Annan family friend, had spoken with Annan and his entourage in November 1998, shortly before the UN contract was awarded to Cotecna.
Aides said Annan had no recollection of such discussion and found no trace of it in UN records.
Cotecna has dismissed claims that Wilson, its ex-vice president, helped it win the multimillion dollar contract by lobbying Annan and insisted it “acted at all times appropriately and ethically in its bidding for, winning and performing that contract.” —AFP
