Annan takes action after Volcker oil-for-food report
UNITED NATIONS (AP) – Secretary-General Kofi Annan is taking disciplinary action against the head of the UN oil-for-food programme in Iraq and another UN official criticised in an investigation of alleged corruption in the humanitarian programme, a senior UN official said yesterday.
Mark Malloch Brown, Annan’s chief of staff, said the secretary-general decided to take disciplinary action in response to a report yesterday by former US Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker accusing programme chief Benon Sevan of unethical conduct and Joseph Stephanides of manipulating an oil-for-food contract.
At the time the contract was awarded, Stephanides was chief of the UN Sanctions Branch and deputy director of the Security Council Affairs Division in the UN Department of Political Affairs. He now heads the division.
