Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro
de la Prensa-BasmÖzeti
William Safire
Mr. Annan, tear down this UN stonewall
WASHINGTON
The secretary-generalol the United Nations
tapped ine on the shoulder at a recent luncheon
and said, "May I have a word with you?"
Because several columns ol mine had
zapped the United Nations lor its. cover-up ol the
costliest financial rip-off in history - even calling it
"Kofigate" - Ibraced myself lor an icy rebuke. But
Kofi Annan assuredme, in his courteous way, that
the committee he had appointed to look into the oillor-lood
scandal, headed by Paul Volcker, a lormer
Fed chairma~ would dOa thorough job.
.. I respectfully asked ü this included an inquiry into
his own potential conflict ol interest: When Annan's
son was a consultant to Cotecna Inspections, that
Swiss. company won the lucrative UN contract. to
monitor the shipments ol lood and medicine to Saddam
Hussein's sanctioned regime. Annan revealed
that a competitor had protested undue influence in
~t contract award, and that an internal UN report
would be delivèred to the Volcker committee.
But that was further evidence ol corruption containment.
When the House International Relations
Committee on May 20 requested SSinternal UN audit
reports on oil-lor-lood, Annan wrote to the committee's
chairman, Henry Hyde, on June 2 that Volcker.
"believes the policy ol the Organization not to re:
lease non-public documents is entirely appropriate."
I suggested that the United Nations was using Volcker,
a man ol spotless reputation, to control all inlormation
about the scandal Annan said "I will look
into this further and ask Mr. Volcker to call you."
Annan was true to his word. In came a call two
days later from a very tall former central banker who
prefers that his name not be used. "I thought I had a
large staff together weeks ago, but they backed out on
me. Now we have some top-flight investigators comin~
0'" and we'll announce them soon. The budget
crunc~hhasn't come yet, but the United Nations will
have tô come though with the amounts we need."
. A UN official tells me the Volcker committee's
first choices were turned off not
just by lack of subpoena or oath-requiring
powers - which Volcker
considers"not latal" -:- but by an
.inad~uate budget to dig into the
largest financial rip-off In history.
As a result, after nèarly three
months, a loOt~ng bureaucracy
has successfully frustrated the
ind~pendent committee dependent ..
on It. "Some people have indicated ...
eagerness to show us what they have, but we haVen't""
had the staff; the office space, the administrative
structu17- I haven't even bad a press person.". ..... .....
My Nlxon-era colleague was a tad testy about any .
•i~putation. to the secretary-generàl that his reten-.
hon was belDg used to block outside inquiries backed ..
by the lorce o~ law. ':1 d?n't think it's a great idea to ..
have parallel lDvestlgahons ol UN contracts," Not
even by the House ol Representatives? "Henry Hyde
wants to be supportive; whether his staff agrees with .
him is another matter."
This well-meaning financial wizard is determinèd
to ~esis!, all investigative competition. "TakeBNP .
Panbas, he says of the French-owned bank central.
to the financing ol the UN's oil-lor-lood debacle; .
"Government authorities can get their stuff, but to
the ,extent that they're contractors ol the United Nations,no
bank