| Kofi Annan, Kojo Annan and Benon Sevan Are in
All The Wrong Places at All the Wrong Times
Volcker Report Accepts the Unacceptable
When it Comes to ‘Amazing Coincidences’ as Alibis
(SACRAMENTO) – As reported by Move America Forward (website: www.MoveAmericaForward.org), today’s report by Paul Volcker and the Independent Inquiry Committee investigation the U.N. Oil for Food program ill advisably jumps to conclusions that absolve the U.N. and Kofi Annan of corruption and wrongdoing, despite mounting evidence to the contrary.
The Volcker report contains disturbing new information on how Kojo Annan’s undisclosed and secret employer, Cotecna Inspection Services, won the Oil for Food contract at the same time his father, Kofi Annan, was U.N. General Secretary.
Among the facts revealed by Volcker’s report:
• In 1996 Cotecna first bid for the U.N. Oil for Food inspection contract. However, the Volcker committee reports that Cotecna’s “proposal was not competitive with those of the other bidders.” The contract instead was awarded to the British company, Lloyd’s.
• Volcker’s report notes that as early as March, 1998, Cotecna executives “directly expressed an interest to Benon Sevan, then in charge of the Office of the Iraq Programme” (as the U.N. Oil for Food program was called), in somehow obtaining the inspection services contract even though they had previously lost in the bidding process.
• Just three months after the report of the first discussions between Cotecna and Benon Sevan, the United Nations’ procurement department and Oil for Food officials decided to re-bid the Oil for Food inspection services contract.
• The Oil for Food contract was put out to bid to thirteen potential bidders, and this time Cotecna Inspection Services managed to come in as the lowest bidder. They went from having a proposal that was exorbitantly high their first time to being the lowest bidder among 13 this time, after they meet with the man Kofi Annan hand-picked to head up the Oil for Food program, Benon Sevan.
• Here’s the best part – of all the companies in the world, the U.N. General Secretary’s son, Kojo Annan, just happened to be working for Cotecna Inspection Services, but then they chose to hide their relationship from public scrutiny for no reason under their explanation of events.
• And for comic relief, the Volcker report declares that: “At no time during the bid process were relevant decision-making personnel of the procurement department, OIP, or the HCC [United Nations Headquarters Committee on Contracts] advised or aware of Cotecna’s employment of Kojo Annan. So we have a second miraculous coincidence, it turns out that not only was Kojo Annan working for the company awarded the Oil for Food contract, but Volcker’s report states with a straight-face that no one at the U.N. knew the Secretary General’s son worked for Cotecna while extraordinary things were going on.
• What makes this explanation even more remarkable is that no one at the U.N. claims they knew that Kojo Annan was working for Cotecna even though Kofi Annan met with Cotecna’s Chairman for cocktails in January, 1997 and again in late 1998 at around the time that the Oil for Food contract was being bid on by Cotecna.
• And it doesn’t end there… you see in October, 1998 – including the day the UN procurement department issued the RFP for the Oil for Food inspection contract, Kojo Annan was in New York staying with his dad, Kofi Annan. According to the Volcker report: “He came to New York because of the United Nations General Assembly meetings, so he could advance Cotecna’s business…”
• But despite all of that, we are supposed to accept the explanation by Kofi Annan, Kojo Annan, Benon Sevan, Paul Volcker and countless other U.N. officials that no one knew Kojo Annan just happened to be working for the company that won the Oil for Food contract, just months after the company’s representatives appealed to Benon Sevan for help in winning the contract.
“Paul Volcker has repeatedly stated that he is interested in using this investigation to help rebuild the United Nations into a stronger organization. Volcker has already pre-judged his own investigation by saying there was no evidence of widespread corruption or abuse in the Oil for Food program.
“Clearly, no matter how compelling or striking the evidence, Volcker cannot bring himself to conclude that his friend, Kofi Annan, and the United Nations as an institution were engaged in gross corruption and deception,” said Melanie Morgan, Co-Chair of Move America Forward.
As Move America Forward’s Howard Kaloogian explained, “the more that comes out about the U.N. Oil for Food program, the more obvious it is that U.N. officials engaged in rampant acts of wrongdoing.”
“Kofi Annan, Kojo Annan, Benon Sevan and other U.N. officials repeatedly have been caught giving out misinformation, mistruths, and blatant misrepresentations. They keep changing their stories to warp their explanation of what happened based on the latest incriminating revelations on the scandal.
“The more times those involved in the U.N. Oil for Food scam change their stories, the more obvious it is of their guilt,” Kaloogian said.
Next week Move America Forward will resume its television ad campaign to “Get the U.N. Out of the U.S.” The ads will air on several national television networks throughout the month of April. The group hopes to rally Americans to demand that U.S. political leaders stop playing host and chief financial sponsor of the U.N. while it is both corrupt and ineffective.
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