Kofi Annan Stained by Oil for Food Scandal

This week, the U.N. Commission investigating the Oil-for-Food scandal issued a devastating report concluding that two senior U.N. officials took bribes. But the report’s headline-grabbing charges against the former director of the Oil-for-Food program and a top procurement official are likely not the most important revelations.

According to the report, the Commission concluded:

• Benon Sevan, who was Secretary General Kofi Annan’s hand-picked director of the massive program, took at least $150,000 in bribes from Iraq. Sevan’s motive was a classic: he was drowning in debt and his finances were a mess. The report makes clear that Sevan’s scheme to solicit bribes and pocket the money was less than elegant. During a 1998 visit to Baghdad, Sevan simply asked the Iraqi Oil Minister to allocate 1.8 million barrels of oil to a small firm called AMEP run by a friend of Sevan’s. After AMEP sold the oil to a larger company, the resulting proceeds were passed along through a Swiss bank to Sevan by another friend who just happens to be a cousin of former Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali.
  
  The detail of the Commission’s investigation into Sevan’s misconduct is extraordinary, but the conclusions were unsurprising. The Commission’s first report alluded to the likelihood that Sevan had solicited and received bribes.
  
  
• Alexander Yakovlev, a U.N. procurement officer, took at least $950,000 in bribes “from various companies ― or persons affiliated with such companies ― that collectively won more than $79 million in United Nations contracts and purchase orders.” In addition, Yakovlev solicited a bribe from a company that was then bidding on the massive Oil-for-Food inspection contract. In exchange for the money, Yakovlev promised to hand over secret internal U.N. bidding information that would give that firm an advantage in preparing its bid. The Commission found no evidence that the company paid the bribe, and it ultimately failed to win the contract.
  
  Yakovlev had already been dismissed from the U.N. following press reports that he got his son a job with a U.N. contractor. But the most interesting aspect of the Yakovlev chapter of the report is the insight it might provide into the U.N.’s procurement process in general. Apparently, Yakovlev’s bribe-taking was just short of routine. It’s no great leap to conclude that the entire U.N. purchasing apparatus is similarly corrupted.

The most significant portion of the report, however, is a lengthy aside in the preface.

Recall that the Secretary General’s son, Kojo, worked for Cotecna, the Swiss company that was ultimately awarded the massive contract to inspect shipments of humanitarian goods that entered Iraq. In March, the Commission stated in a report that it could find no evidence that Kofi Annan had improperly influenced the selection process in favor of his son’s employer. Weeks later, Cotecna discovered an e-mail from Kojo’s friend at Cotecna that indicated that he and Kojo had “brief discussions with the” Secretary General after all. As a result, the Commission is once again investigating the Secretary General.

But given the cozy relationship between Cotecna and Kojo Annan, it’s impossible to believe that Kojo didn’t at least ask his father for help. And given the obvious culture of corruption at the U.N. ― where Kofi Annan has worked for most of his adult life ― along with evidence that Cotecna’s bid was not the lowest, it’s hard to believe that the Secretary General didn’t intervene.

Whatever the Commission ultimately concludes, it is clear that at least in some respect, Kofi Annan’s hands are stained by the Oil-for-Food scandal, whether by his failure to supervise his hand-picked director or his own personal misconduct.