Annan Confirms Reports of Son's Possible Impropriety

UNITED NATIONS -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Monday that he was "surprised and disappointed" by revelations that his son received payments until this year from a Swiss company that won a lucrative contract under the United Nations' scandal-ridden Iraqi oil-for-food program.

Annan confirmed news reports that his son, Kojo, 29, received $2,500 a month over four years from Cotecna Inspection SA, which monitored goods imported to Iraq under the humanitarian program until November 2003. The payments totaled $125,000.



Cotecna -- and Annan -- previously had claimed that Annan's son stopped working for the company in 1998. The company later said that it had paid him a monthly stipend through 1999 to keep him from working for competitors and that he never worked on a project related to Iraq. 



There is no evidence that the younger Annan's connection with the company influenced its receipt of the Iraq contract. But Annan acknowledged that the fact that his son received payments from Cotecna while the company was bidding on a U.N. contract and throughout its work in Iraq creates an appearance of impropriety. 



"I understand the perception problem for the U.N., or the perception of conflict of interests and wrongdoing," the secretary-general told reporters at the U.N. Annan added that he has spoken to his son about the matter, but he could not answer for him.

"He is an independent businessman. He is a grown man, and I don't get involved with his activities and he doesn't get involved in mine," Annan said.

A U.N.-appointed commission of inquiry is looking into the payments to Kojo Annan.