Independent
By David Usborne in New York
30 March 2005
Kofi Annan's position as secretary general of the United Nations was further undermined after investigators said he failed to take sufficient action in 1999 when he found out that a company that had employed his son for several years had been awarded a big contract to oversee the oil-for-food programme in Iraq.
In its latest interim report yesterday, the committee investigating claims of corruption in the programme said it had found insufficient evidence to show Kojo Annan's connection to the firm in question, Cotecna Inspections, had skewed the bidding process that led to it being awarded the contract.
"There is no evidence that the selection of Cotecna in 1998 was subject to any affirmative or improper influence of the secretary general," Paul Volcker, former US Federal Reserve chairman, said. Mr Annan released a statement last night saying the inquiry had "cleared me of any wrongdoing".
But the cloud that the affair has cast over the secretary general will not be easily dispersed. Mr Annan was fully aware his son was working for Cotecna. What the investigators could not prove was that he knew the firm was competing for the oil-for-food programme in late 1998. He told investigators he only learned that Cotecna had sought and indeed won the contract from press reports in January 1999.
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