KOFI SON'S OIL PAY KEPT ON GUSHING <!--end headline-->
<!--start byline-->By DEBORAH ORIN Washington Bureau Chief <!--end byline-->
<HR color=#000000 SIZE=1><TABLE cellSpacing=2 width=140 align=left valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top><!--start photo--><!--WEBPHOTO1--><!--end photo--><!--start caption--><!--WEBCAPTION1--><!--end caption--><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" align=center bgColor=#e7e3e3 valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD colSpan=3 height=2></TD><TR><TD width=2></TD><TD width="98%"><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="98%" align=center bgColor=#ffffff valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top width="50%">
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Reprint</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD><TD width=1></TD></TR><TR><TD colSpan=3 height=2></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>November 27, 2004 -- <!--start bodytext-->In a new bombshell, the United Nations has admitted that Secretary-General Kofi Annan's son got paid all the way into 2004 by a company with a lucrative contract from the scandal-plagued oil-for-food program in Iraq.
"I can't explain it," U.N. spokesman Fred Eckard told reporters yesterday, conceding that the new revelation "runs counter" to prior U.N. claims that the payments to Annan's son Kojo ceased in 1999.
Instead, Annan's son got paid over four years more by the Swiss firm Cotecna — during the entire time that it had a U.N. contract in the fraud-ridden program that let Saddam Hussein skim off billions.
The latest shocker fuels the growing storm over Annan's U.N. tenure, including recent revelations that U.N. peacekeepers sexually exploited women in the Congo.
In an e-mail to The Post yesterday, Eckard seemed to take a step back from the world body's prior insistence that the U.N. chief's son had nothing to do with Cotecna getting its lucrative U.N. contract.
"On the face of it, there's no reason to think Kojo's link to Cotecna had anything to do with the granting of the contract," Eckard wrote — language that stops short of ruling it out completely.
Kojo Annan got $2,500 a month and may have gotten as much as $150,000 plus use of a Cotecna credit card after the time when the U.N. initially claimed he had left Cotecna, according to the New York Sun, which first reported the story yesterday.
A leaked internal U.N. audit concluded that Cotecna made a lowball bid to win the U.N. contract away from a British firm — and then was allowed an "inappropriate" hike in its rates just four days after signing the deal.
Cotecna's contract called for it to inspect shipments to Iraq under the oil-for-food program run by U.N. official Benon Sevan.
Saddam was allowed to sell limited amounts of oil to buy food and medicine for the Iraqi people, but congressional probers say he ripped off $21.3 billion through kickbacks and oil-smuggling. <!--OAS Middle-->
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Saddam used that money, they charge, to buy weapons, build palaces, bribe key international figures in countries like France and Russia — and pay up to $25,000 to families of Palestinian suicide bombers.
More than $6 billion is believed still missing — possibly paying for the weapons now being used in attacks on U.S. troops as well as Iraqi and coalition forces.
The new information about Kojo Annan has been turned over to former Federal Reserve chief Paul Volcker, who is conducting a U.N. probe of the oil-for-food program.
"All I can say is that it'll have to be now for Paul Volcker to explain it, and clearly the information is in his hands," Eckard said.
The U.N. has contended that Cotecna paid Kojo Annan for work in West Africa, not Iraq, and later paid him a "non-compete" retainer after he set up his own firm in West Africa.
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<!--start byline-->By DEBORAH ORIN Washington Bureau Chief <!--end byline-->
<HR color=#000000 SIZE=1><TABLE cellSpacing=2 width=140 align=left valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top><!--start photo--><!--WEBPHOTO1--><!--end photo--><!--start caption--><!--WEBCAPTION1--><!--end caption--><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" align=center bgColor=#e7e3e3 valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD colSpan=3 height=2></TD><TR><TD width=2></TD><TD width="98%"><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="98%" align=center bgColor=#ffffff valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top width="50%">
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Reprint</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD><TD width=1></TD></TR><TR><TD colSpan=3 height=2></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>November 27, 2004 -- <!--start bodytext-->In a new bombshell, the United Nations has admitted that Secretary-General Kofi Annan's son got paid all the way into 2004 by a company with a lucrative contract from the scandal-plagued oil-for-food program in Iraq. "I can't explain it," U.N. spokesman Fred Eckard told reporters yesterday, conceding that the new revelation "runs counter" to prior U.N. claims that the payments to Annan's son Kojo ceased in 1999.
Instead, Annan's son got paid over four years more by the Swiss firm Cotecna — during the entire time that it had a U.N. contract in the fraud-ridden program that let Saddam Hussein skim off billions.
The latest shocker fuels the growing storm over Annan's U.N. tenure, including recent revelations that U.N. peacekeepers sexually exploited women in the Congo.
In an e-mail to The Post yesterday, Eckard seemed to take a step back from the world body's prior insistence that the U.N. chief's son had nothing to do with Cotecna getting its lucrative U.N. contract.
"On the face of it, there's no reason to think Kojo's link to Cotecna had anything to do with the granting of the contract," Eckard wrote — language that stops short of ruling it out completely.
Kojo Annan got $2,500 a month and may have gotten as much as $150,000 plus use of a Cotecna credit card after the time when the U.N. initially claimed he had left Cotecna, according to the New York Sun, which first reported the story yesterday.
A leaked internal U.N. audit concluded that Cotecna made a lowball bid to win the U.N. contract away from a British firm — and then was allowed an "inappropriate" hike in its rates just four days after signing the deal.
Cotecna's contract called for it to inspect shipments to Iraq under the oil-for-food program run by U.N. official Benon Sevan.
Saddam was allowed to sell limited amounts of oil to buy food and medicine for the Iraqi people, but congressional probers say he ripped off $21.3 billion through kickbacks and oil-smuggling. <!--OAS Middle-->
<TABLE align=left><TBODY><TR><TD><SCRIPT language=JavaScript> <!-- OAS_AD('Middle');//--></SCRIPT><!-- begin ZEDO --><SCRIPT language=JavaScript>var zflag_nid="162"; var zflag_cid="8/1"; var zflag_sid="4"; var zflag_width="300"; var zflag_height="250"; var zflag_sz="9"; </SCRIPT><IFRAME marginWidth=0 marginHeight=0 src="http://c1.zedo.com/jsc/c1/ff2.html?n=162;c=8/1;s=4;d=9;w=300;h=250" frameBorder=0 width=300 scrolling=no height=250 allowTransparency><script language=\"JavaScript\" src="http://c1.zedo.com/jsc/c1/ff2.js"></script><noscript>
Saddam used that money, they charge, to buy weapons, build palaces, bribe key international figures in countries like France and Russia — and pay up to $25,000 to families of Palestinian suicide bombers.
More than $6 billion is believed still missing — possibly paying for the weapons now being used in attacks on U.S. troops as well as Iraqi and coalition forces.
The new information about Kojo Annan has been turned over to former Federal Reserve chief Paul Volcker, who is conducting a U.N. probe of the oil-for-food program.
"All I can say is that it'll have to be now for Paul Volcker to explain it, and clearly the information is in his hands," Eckard said.
The U.N. has contended that Cotecna paid Kojo Annan for work in West Africa, not Iraq, and later paid him a "non-compete" retainer after he set up his own firm in West Africa.
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