Say Anything Blog

Hmm...

March 29 (Bloomberg) -- United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan didn't improperly influence the bidding or selection process for contracts awarded to Cotecna Inspection SA, a Swiss company hired in 1998 to monitor humanitarian goods for Iraq, a report said.

The report by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker said that, while procurement rules weren't followed in the awarding of UN contracts to Cotecna, Annan didn't know the company was seeking the work during his son's employment by the company.

``There is no evidence that the selection of Cotecna in 1998 was subject to any affirmative or improper influence of the secretary-general in the bidding or selection process,'' the report said. It said Cotecna was awarded $66 million in contracts to inspect goods coming into Iraq because it was the lowest bidder.

I'm skeptical.

It is, as James Joyner puts it, one "hell of a coincidence" that the company picked by the United Nations to oversee the oil-for-food program just happens to employ the UN Secretary General's son.

I investigate fraud for a living. In my experience (albeit small potatoes compared to the type of fraud involved in the oil-for-food scandal) these type of coincidences don't take place in a vacuum. There's always a reason.

Regardless, even if Kofi didn't unduly influence the picking of Cotecna his tenures as Secretary General at the UN has still been riddled with enough corruption and scandal to make it clear to even the most casual observer that he should step down.