The committee investigating the UN oil-for-food program has announced it will investigate Secretary-General Kofi Annan after two newly discovered e-mails suggested he may have known about a multimillion-dollar UN contract awarded to the company that employed his son.
One e-mail described an encounter between Annan and officials from Cotecna Inspection S.A. in late 1998 during which the Swiss company's bid for the contract was raised. The second from the same Cotecna executive expressed his confidence that the company would get the bid because of "effective but quiet lobbying" in New York diplomatic circles.
If accurate, the new details would cast doubt on a major finding the UN-backed Independent Inquiry Committee made in March - that there wasn't enough evidence to show that Annan knew about efforts by Cotecna, which employed his son Kojo, to win the Iraq oil-for-food contract.
Through his spokesman, Annan said he didn't remember the late 1998 meeting. He repeatedly has insisted that he didn't know Cotecna was pursuing a contract with the oil-for-food program.
The $64 billion oil-for-food program was aimed at helping ordinary Iraqis suffering under UN sanctions imposed after Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, but it has become the target of several corruption investigations since the Iraqi leader was ousted.
Annan appointed the Independent Inquiry Committee, led by former US Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, in an effort to settle the issue for good.