Oil for Food report: the reaction

Let me say at the outset that Annan’s reaction to the report is unacceptable:

I won't quit, vows defiant UN chief.

The report, more than 800 pages long, was highly critical of the almost total lack of oversight of the program by the secretary-general and Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette (search), who was the direct boss of Benon Sevan, the program's executive director who is being investigated for allegedly accepting kickbacks.

The secretary general's behaviour "has not been exonerated by any stretch of the imagination", Mr Volcker told reporters.

He added that it "really was unfortunate" that Mr Annan failed to open a proper investigation of the role of his son, Kojo Annan, who was on the payroll of a Swiss firm, Cotecna, as it was bidding in 1998 for a major oil-for-food contract.

Mr Volcker continued to give the secretary general the benefit of the doubt that he had not been aware at the time of his son's activities on behalf of Cotecna and done nothing himself to steer the contract in the firm's direction.

The report plays down an internal memo from Cotecna suggesting that its bid had in fact been discussed with Mr Annan at a summit of French-speaking countries in Paris in late 1998.

And if Annan is really as dumb as he wants us to believe, he not only failed as SG, but also as a father.

The report details how Kojo repeatedly telephoned UN staff as part of the company's campaign to win the contract. He referred to the UN staffers as "my people in New York".

As usual, Annan tries to put the blame on the US:

Mr Annan gave a lengthy interview to the BBC to defend himself and the UN, again suggesting that much of the blame lay with hostile US politicians and journalists.

They were attempting to destroy the organisation, he said.

"And of course I'm the face of the United Nations," he added. "And so if you want to destroy the United Nations, to discredit it, you have to focus on the face and the leader."

Leader?

The report singled out the apparent chaos on the "38th floor", the UN's in-house nickname for the offices of the secretary general and his top aides in its Manhattan skyscraper. "No one was in charge," it stated. Pointedly, it called for stronger leadership and condemned Mr Annan and his senior staff for failing to inform the Security |Council of Iraq's campaign of sanctions-busting and corruption.

Bolton put it very well:

John R. Bolton, the United States ambassador, said shortcomings in the program provided a catalyst for change but said some countries were "in a state of denial" about the need for it.

"The report unambiguously rejects the notion that 'business as usual' at the U.N. is fine," he said. "We need to reform the U.N. in a manner that will prevent another oil-for-food scandal. The credibility of the U.N. depends on it."

The reaction at next week Summit in New York will be crucial:

High on the agenda of the 170 heads of state and government gathering in New York is the issue of UN reform, with Annan expected to ask them to grant more independence to the office of secretary-general. The Independent Inquiry Committee's damning conclusions on Annan's management failures, may result in his message falling on deaf ears, or on the contrary might give it an urgency that makes UN members sit up and act.

One of the justifications being used by those aiming to excuse Annan and the Security Council’s faults is to mention the blind eye given by US and UK to the smuggling of oil from Iraq to Jordan and Turkey, saying that it encouraged corruption in the UN. Apart from the political aspect of this issue, the comparison is absurd: one thing is to look the other way so that two important countries in the region do not collapse and another is to allow Saddam himself to benefit in order to receive kickbacks.

I am very doubtful that the reform of the UN, even if Bolton manages to push through the majority of the amendments he has made to the original proposal, can make a difference. The reason of my skepticism is simple: the rules to guarantee a decent administration and management of the UN are already in place; the problem is that nobody implements them. The UN should be completely overhauled and the decisional power restricted to democratic countries offering a minimum of basic liberties to their citizens.

United Nations, Annan, Oil for Food, UNSCAM