Annan's embarrassment - Khaleej Times Online

If I was Annan I'd be embarassed. In contrast, he appears to be beyond embarassment.

UNITED NATIONS - UN Secretary General Kofi Annan faces more embarrassment on Tuesday when a new report on the Iraq oil-for-food program takes aim at his son Kojo’s business dealings. The enquiry headed by former US banking chief Paul Volcker will fault Annan for not recognising a conflict of interest in Kojo’s employment by a firm contracted by the program, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

Annan and the United Nations have been increasingly mired in scandal over oil-for-food, the UN program that supervised oil sales by Saddam Hussein’s regime from 1996 to 2003 to allow Iraq to buy humanitarian supplies. Last month, the Volcker panel said the program’s director, Benon Sevan, steered Iraqi oil to an acquaintance in what it called a grave and unethical conflict of interest. The panel also cast doubt on Sevan’s claim that a series of large cash payments he had received were from his aunt.

The UN’s woes were compounded when it emerged Annan personally decided to pay Sevan’s legal fees out of a UN account with money left over from Iraqi oil sales.

Tuesday’s report will focus on Kojo Annan, a former employee of Cotecna - a Swiss firm that had a contract to certify the import of goods under the program. The Financial Times reported last week that Kojo had been paid at least 300,000 dollars by the firm, twice the amount previously admitted, and that his father met with Cotecna officials twice before the firm won the contract.

Shouldn't the U.N. set an example to corrupt governments? Yes, but remember: when you wish the U.N. would set an example, choose your words carefully.