UN official dismissed over oil-for-food role

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has dismissed a veteran UN official accused of serious misconduct over Iraq's oil-for-food programme…

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has dismissed a veteran UN official accused of serious misconduct over Iraq's oil-for-food programme.

Joseph Stephanides, who contends his actions were approved by his superiors, was accused by a UN-appointed inquiry of steering a lucrative contract under the oil-for-food programme to a British firm.

Mr Annan, who was not secretary-general when the incident took place in 1996, concluded Mr Stephanides committed "serious misconduct" and "was separated from service with immediate effect," a UN spokesman said.

Mr Stephanides denied breaking any rules and vowed to appeal.

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"There were tremendous pressures to cut corners and accelerate the institutional arrangements because civilians were suffering in Iraq and oil-for-food had to be started as soon as possible," he said. "To make me the fall guy for that - this is really preposterous."

Under the $67 billion scheme, Iraq was allowed to sell oil to buy civilian goods to ease the impact on ordinary Iraqis of UN sanctions imposed after Baghdad invaded Kuwait in 1990.

After the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Iraq's new leaders disclosed ways Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had undercut the programme by bribing and soliciting bribes in exchange for contracts.

The entire UN-administered program is being investigated, and Mr Annan, who took office in 1997, has come under criticism for failing to root out mismanagement.

Paul Volcker, the former US Federal Reserve chairman who heads an independent inquiry into oil-for-food, has cleared Mr Annan of interfering in the award of a separate contract to Cotecna, a Swiss firm that employed his son, Kojo Annan.