UN Oil-for-Food inquiry questions aunt's $160,000

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Times
From Michael Theodoulou in Nicosia and James Bone in New York
http://images.thetimes.co.uk/TGD/picture/0,,177072,00.jpg


A DOTING aunt in Cyprus yesterday became the focus of the United Nations investigation into the Oil-for-Food scandal after the head of the United Nations programme claimed that she had given him large sums of cash.

Benon Sevan, former head of the largest humanitarian programme in UN history, claimed that he had received $160,000 (£85,000) in cash from Berdjouchi Zeytountsian, his spinster aunt, who died last year after falling into a lift shaft.

A UN inquiry, led by Paul Volcker, the former head of the US Federal Reserve, has cast doubt on Mr Sevan’s explanation and questioned this “unexplained wealth”.

In its initial findings, the Volcker panel accused Mr Sevan of secretly receiving millions of barrels of oil allocations from Saddam Hussein’s Government in an Iraqi attempt to buy influence at the UN.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1471241,00.html

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1. Ex-chief linked to UN oil scandal

Ex-chief linked to UN oil scandal

Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington and Charlotte Moore
Saturday February 5, 2005
The Guardian

Kofi Annan yesterday promised to move swiftly to deal with corruption after an inquiry into the oil-for-food programme drew links to the relatives of the former UN chief Boutros Boutros-Ghali.
"Obviously, there were some hard knocks in the report and we are concerned about it," the UN secretary general told reporters. "We want to get to the bottom of it, to get to the truth, and to take appropriate measures to deal with the gaps."

Mr Annan, who succeeded Mr Boutros-Ghali in 1997, could also fall under scrutiny for possible familial connections to the scandal. A forthcoming report from the independent inquiry will examine charges that his son, Kojo Annan, helped a Geneva-based company obtain a UN contract.

So far, the head of the inquiry, Paul Volcker, has reserved his greatest criticism for the programme's administrator, Benon Sevan. But there were new concerns at the UN yesterday about the role of Mr Boutrous-Ghali, who was in charge of the organisation from 1991 to 1996, and oversaw the inception of the oil-for-food programme.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1406453,00.html