Oil-for-Food: Kojo and Cotecna
Kojo junkies will have to wait. The Interim Report of the UN Independent Inquiry Committee investigating Oil-For-Food, has this, and only this, to say about the son of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan:
Lloyds got the contract even though its bid was $1.1 million higher than lead competitor Bureau Veritas of France. Lloyds subsequently cut its bid by $900 million (Gee, there was a little fat in that bid, wasn't there?), but it got the gig primarily because the UN was afraid to let all three of the prime O-F-F contracts go to French companies.
Greasing the skids for Lloyds was none other than O-F-F top dog Benon Sevan, aided and abetted by UN Dept. of Political Affairs director Joseph Stephanides, who also got punched out in the Interim Report for his handling of the selection of the winner of the O-F-F contract for on-site oil inspections. Both are now facing criminal charges.
The Interim Report, at 219 pages, is thick enough to get attention, but at this point, the jam is still spread too thin. The corruption of O-F-F was multi-faceted and certainly involved many more players than Sevan and Stephanides. Hopefully the subsequent interim reports and the final report will nail many, many more and not repeat the CBS whitewash.
However, the Report does not deal with another issue about which allegations have been made. In December 1998, the United Nations selected a Swiss company, Cotecna Inspection SA ("Cotecna"), to replace Lloyds' Register Inspection Ltd. ("Lloyds") as the humanitarian goods inspectors Secretary-General Kofi Annan's son, Kojo Annan, was affiliated with Cotecna at the time that Cotecna was selected to receive this inspection services contract. The selection of Cotecna has been the subject of intensive investigation by the Committee, and the Committee expects to issue a second interim report on this issue." (Italics in original)This first interim report lambasts the selection of Lloyds, stating clearly that the process violated UN bidding proceedures. It's likely to be even more critical of the decision to drop Lloyds for Cotecna.
Lloyds got the contract even though its bid was $1.1 million higher than lead competitor Bureau Veritas of France. Lloyds subsequently cut its bid by $900 million (Gee, there was a little fat in that bid, wasn't there?), but it got the gig primarily because the UN was afraid to let all three of the prime O-F-F contracts go to French companies.
Greasing the skids for Lloyds was none other than O-F-F top dog Benon Sevan, aided and abetted by UN Dept. of Political Affairs director Joseph Stephanides, who also got punched out in the Interim Report for his handling of the selection of the winner of the O-F-F contract for on-site oil inspections. Both are now facing criminal charges.
The Interim Report, at 219 pages, is thick enough to get attention, but at this point, the jam is still spread too thin. The corruption of O-F-F was multi-faceted and certainly involved many more players than Sevan and Stephanides. Hopefully the subsequent interim reports and the final report will nail many, many more and not repeat the CBS whitewash.
posted by Laer at 1:38 AM
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