U.N. RUGS
Have you noticed how much deeper the rugs seem to have become in the United Nations Building in New York City? You get the feeling they have been raised up a bit.
It might well be that those in charge of the policies of administrative housekeeping at the U.N . have been sweeping undesirable
problems under the rug rather than bringing them out in the open for possible sunlight solutions.
That may be what has become of the long- ago named multi-billion dollar Iraqi-Oil-For-Food fraud. The media informed us that in April they had become aware of the fact that the U.N. Had,in some strange way, failed to properly oversee the transfer of one hundred billion dollars worth of Iraqi crude oil for a like amount of humanitarian aid in the form of food for the Iraqi people. They found the transfer to be a honeycomb of kickbacks, smuggling and political back-scratching under the guise of doing relief work. That part designated as aide to the Kurds, in northern Iraq was known to have been stopped and diverted by Saddam and so reported by Benon Sevan, who, as secretary general Kofi Annan' s reported directly to him. A French banking firm seems to have been involved int his switch-a- roo of such re-distributed funds to various nations around the world at Saddam's bidding.
There is a possibility that the French firm we have red about may be confused with a Swiss-Based financial firm hired by the U.N. at the unusually high rate of six million dollars for the first year. Payment for the following years to that firm - Coteca - have been kept confidential. Many seem to find it of special man from Ghana was hired by Coteca less than a year before the U.N. Account came to them. His name was Kojo Annan and he was hired as a “consultant” by the rather tight-lipped firm. It seems to have come as a “surprise” several years later to both the Coteca company and to the U.N . headquarters that Kojo Annan happens to be the U.N. Secretary-General's son. He, of course, worked on the Oil-for-Food” account.
Coteca was quite prompt in pointing out that “the decisions were made by the contracts committee, not by Annan.”
Most certainly the names Kofi and Kojo will be featured on our TV screens once we get the presidential election out of our electronic way, regardless of who wins. Old-fashioned Father-Son shows are hard to come by these days on TV and this should be a good one. It is especially promising because, here more or less the start of it all. neither one of them has been accused of doing anything wrong.
“Innocent until proved to be guilty”. That' s the way we like it.
A.L.M. October 18, 2004 [c472wds]
