Ex-UN oil-for-food chief resigns
Benon Sevan addressing Kofi Annan: “The charges are
false and you, who have known me all these years,
should know they are false.”
BBC News
2005/08/08
The former head of the United Nations’ oil-for-food
programme has quit the UN, lashing out at Secretary
General Kofi Annan for “sacrificing” him.
Benon Sevan’s decision comes a day before a third
report on the scandal-plagued programme is published.
It is expected to accuse Mr Sevan of receiving cash in
return for allocating Iraqi oil contracts in the
mid-1990s.
The oil-for-food programme allowed Saddam Hussein to
sell limited amounts of oil to buy humanitarian goods.
Mr Sevan’s lawyers have already said the report will
falsely accuse him of receiving cash kick-backs for
helping a company obtain lucrative oil contracts under
the scheme.
Mr Sevan, a Cypriot who had worked with the
organisation for four decades, tendered his
resignation in a letter addressed personally to Kofi
Annan.
‘False charges’
“I fully understand the pressure you are under […]
but sacrificing me for political expediency will never
appease our critics or help you or the Organization,”
he wrote.
Mr Sevan was suspended in February but was retained an
honorary post so that he could help the investigation,
receiving a nominal annual salary of $1.
The report is the third in a series produced by an
independent inquiry committee established by the UN.
In his letter he insisted he was innocent of any
charges that would be made against him.
“The charges are false and you, who have known me all
these years, should know they are false,” he wrote.
In February, the independent panel investigating the
allegations of corruption in the oil-for-food scandal
had said that Mr Sevan had received payments of cash
as well as oil allocations.
Mr Sevan said the real oil-for-food scandal was the
way the programme was misrepresented by those who were
against the UN.
He said he was disappointed by Mr Annan’s “failure to
defend the historic achievements of the oil-for-food
programme.”
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