Bad news for Kofi

Another report on the UN oil-for-food mess comes out today, in which investigators will chide Kofi Annan personally for failing to prevent corruption in the program - much of it involving his son:

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan faces censure from investigators in the oil-for-food scandal, who will criticize him in a report to be released today for failing to prevent conflicts of interest in the massive humanitarian project, officials say.

Mr. Annan, who has been sharply criticized by anti-UN elements in the United States over his management of the project, will not be directly implicated in any conflict of interest but will be criticized for failing to confront his son about a questionable relationship with a United Nations supplier.

The Independent Inquiry Committee, headed by former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, will also take the Secretary-General to task for failing to detect shortcomings in the internal UN bureaucracy that allowed problems in the oil-for-food program to continue until 2003, a UN official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
[...]
Prof. Luck said the first Volcker report and leaks from the one due today suggest that Mr. Annan was the product of a UN culture that turned a blind eye to corruption and conflict of interest.

"It is certainly a culture that breeds a reluctance to criticize one's peers and a reluctance to be a whistle blower," he said.

Advantage, Roger L. Simon.

Posted by damian at March 29, 2005 08:14 AM