by Judi McLeod, Canadafreepress.com
December 1, 2004
When it comes to nepotism, the United Nations, which claims to own the monopoly on finding world peace, is no different than the corporate world where the boss’s son often gets first dibs.
Kojo annan, whose name first appeared in mainline media stories about the UN oil-for-food scandal only to drop out of headlines for a year, is back.
It turns out that Kojo, son of UN secretary general Kofi annan, was on the oil-for-food program payroll right up to 2004.
annan Jr. was the recipient of monthly payments more than four years longer than was previously known, courtesy of a Swiss firm that landed a lucrative contract under the scandal-ridden UN oil-for-food program.
The Geneva-based Cotecna paid out $2,500 monthly to Kojo annan, for a total of US$125,000, from the beginning of 2000 to last February. The deal was part of an agreement for Kojo not to compete with Cotecna in West africa after leaving the firm.
Thus far, there have been no specific charges of wrong doing on the part of the Secretary-General in the UN’s December, 1998, award of a multi-million dollar contract to Cotecna, to monitor Iraqi imports under the oil-for-food program.
The disclosure of the non-compete extra years of payments, however have at least renewed questions about conflicts of interests and have left annan and his staff looking inept at best and corrupt at worst.
Kofi annan of Ghana is the 7th secretary general of the UN and the first to be elected from the ranks of UN staff. His former UN jobs include personnel director, budget director, security coordinator and refugee agency executive. annan’s postings include Ethiopia, Egypt and Switzerland.
annan has been on the UN payroll since 1962, with the exception of two years when he returned to Ghana to head the country’s tourism board.
Born on april 8, 1938 in Kumasi, Ghana, annan was a twin whose twin sister died in the 1990s. annan’s father was the elected governor of ashanti Province and was a hereditary paramount chief of the Fante people.
Married to Nane Lagergren, a Swedish artist and lawyer in 1984, his marriage to the Nigerian mother of Kojo and sister, ama ended in divorce.
annan’s thinly veiled disdain for the United States doesn’t take into account that it was an american education that helped launch his career.
after studying science and technology in Ghana, in 1959, annan received an immense career boost when the Ford Foundation furnished a grant that allowed him to study at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn, where he graduated in 1961 with a degree in Economics. He later earned a Masters Degree as a Sloan Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
according to aBC News.com, "When annan was a college student in Minnesota, he vowed never to wear earmuffs. It seemed they offended the elegant Ghana native’s sense of style."
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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