The Washington Times
  • Subscribe
  • RSS
  • Mobile Headlines
  • e-edition
  • E-MAIL ALERTS
  • REGISTER
  • LOG IN
  • E-MAIL ALERTS
  • WELCOME
  • Your Profile
  • Log Out
  • Front Page Image
  • Classifieds
  • Autos
  • Real Estate
  • Jobs
  • Special Sections
  • Customer Service
  • Home
  • News
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Commentary
    • Columns
    • Water Cooler
    • Letters
    • Cartoons
    • Books
  • Sports
  • Culture
    • Home & Living
    • Family & Kids
    • Travel
    • Health
    • Washington Visitors
    • Books
    • Auto
    • TV Listings
    • Movie Listings
    • Death Notices
    • Entertainment
  • Communities
  • Rebate Shopping
    • Stores
    • Coupons
    • Daily Double
    • Promotion
    • How It Works
  • Photos
  • Podcasts
    • About Headlines
    • Audio and Radio
    • America's Morning News
  • National

    FBI's effective Most Wanted list turns 60

  • Politics

    Pay raise sought for bilingual fed workers

  • National

    Ex-chief regrets D.C. fire merger with EMS

  • National

    Obama urges China to cut currency link

  • Business

    Obama pledges to boost U.S. exports

  • Politics

    House leaders call pro-life group's bluff

  • Politics

    House GOP bans earmarks for members

Monday, November 29, 2004

Another oil-food scandal emerges

Rate this story

Average 0.00
after 0 votes
Login or register to rate this story

  • Font Size -+
  • Print
  • Email
  • Comment
  • Tweet this!
  • Share
  • Article
  • Comments ()
  • Click-2-Listen

More Stories

  • Bombs in Afghan city kill at least 30
  • Sen. Brown bashes 'bitter' health push
  • Ex-Secy. of State Kissinger hospitalized
  • Iraq vote signals shift from hard-line leaders

By

NEW YORK -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said yesterday he was disappointed in his son for accepting payments from a key contractor in the oil-for-food program for more than four years longer than had been previously acknowledged.

Kojo Annan, 31, had been employed from 1995 to 1997 at Cotecna Inspection SA, a Geneva-based firm that had been inspecting humanitarian goods imported by Iraq with U.N.-administered proceeds from its oil sales. He served briefly as a consultant until 1998.

But the younger Mr. Annan continued to receive as much as $2,500 a month from Cotecna until February 2003 as part of a "no compete" agreement, according to chagrined U.N. officials, who have said for years that the payments ended in late 1998.

"Naturally, I was very disappointed and surprised, yes," the secretary general told reporters yesterday morning. "I understand the perception problem for the U.N., or the perception of a conflict of interest and wrongdoing."

Mr. Annan said he had warm family relations with his son, "but he is in a different field. He is an independent businessman. He is a grown man, and I don't get involved with his activities and he doesn't get involved in mine."

Mr. Annan and other U.N. officials have long said that it was a coincidence that Mr. Annan's son worked for the company that was awarded the contract to manage the program, and that the U.N. office responsible was not aware of Kojo Annan's role at Cotecna.

But the appearance of a payoff to the secretary general's son was just the latest in a series of revelations about the Iraqi oil-for-food program to shake the U.N. Secretariat.

A Senate inquiry recently calculated that Saddam Hussein's regime may have milked more than $20 billion from the humanitarian program, which ran from Dec. 1996 until the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003. U.N. officials and perhaps scores of international companies are suspected of complicity.

"The oil-for-food charges are very serious, if they turn out to be correct they do go to the integrity of the organization," U.S. Ambassador John Danforth said yesterday. "The important thing is that all the facts are out there. Any investigation has to be thorough."

Competing investigations by a U.N.-appointed independent panel, by the U.S. Treasury, by several congressional committees and by the Iraqi government have so far produced more questions than answers.

12Next »

Post a comment

There are comments on this article, submit your opinion!

Commenting is disabled for this entry.
If you feel there is still something worth mentioning about this entry please contact the author or the site admin.

Top Stories

Most Shared

  1. EDITORIAL: Obama's sick obsession
  2. WOLF: Obama family health care fracas
  3. EDITORIAL: Holding Holder in contempt
  4. TX adopts more conservative social studies standards
  5. PRUDEN: 'Tis better to kill the health care corpse now
More Top Stories »
  1. Female coach takes over Coolidge football
  2. Hillary Clinton rebukes Israel
  3. House to put loan reform in health care bill
  4. German sex abuse scandal reaches Pope
  5. Ex-chief regrets D.C. fire merger with EMS

Most Commented

  1. Immigrant rights advocates, poised to rally, pressure Obama
  2. Lesbian teen sues to force school to hold prom
  3. EDITORIAL: Obama's sick obsession
  4. TX adopts more conservative social studies standards
  5. Dems: 'Won't be long' for health care
More Top Stories »
  1. Exports nominee tied to 2 watch list firms
  2. Pay raise sought for bilingual fed workers
  3. EDITORIAL: Federal bonus bonanza
  4. House to put loan reform in health care bill
  5. Obama delays trip to deal with health care

Listen to Washington Times Radio

  • America's Morning News

    with John McCaslin

Blogs & Columns

  • Water Cooler

    Dems still scraping for health reform votes

  • Belief Blog

    Sayonara to the president's faith-based council

  • Technology

    Ordering iPad is painless, except for the wallet hit

Advertising Links
TWT Store
  • e-edition
  • Print Edition
  • Weekly Washington Times
TWT Affiliates
  • Middle East Times
  • Golf
  • UPI
  • Arbor Ballroom
  • Washington Times Global
  • About TWT
  • Press Room
  • F.A.Q.
  • Work for TWT
  • Advertise
  • Sponsors
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site Map

All site contents © Copyright 2009 The Washington Times, LLC.