UNITED NATIONS, June 14 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan does not recall a 1998 meeting in which an executive reportedly claims he was assured of an Iraq oil-for-food contract. | The "I can't recall" defense. Can't be charged with lying about a bad memory, someone might come up with real evidence to prove otherwise if you say "I wasn't there" |
The chief spokesman at U.N. World Headquarters in New York Tuesday also said records do not reflect such an encounter and neither does a "trip coordinator" who attended the Franco-African summit in Paris Annan was attending at the time. Coincidentally, Annan was in Paris Tuesday.
The Independent Inquiry Committee into the U.N.'s Oil-for-Food Program said earlier in the day it was "urgently reviewing newly disclosed information concerning possible links between ... Annan and representatives of Cotecna Inspection Services." | "Crap, how did we miss shredding that document?" |
The Swiss contractor bid for and won contracts under the oil-for-food program while the secretary-general's son, Kojo Annan, was a consultant in 1998.
The statement followed a report in Tuesday's New York Times saying a memo written by a Cotecna executive discussing efforts to win the contract said he met with Annan and his "entourage" and the executive was told, "We could count on their support." |