The Wall Street Journal
Tuesday 25 January 2005
Oil-for-Food Investigation
By Edward Mortimer
Your otherwise very interesting article about renewal at the United Nations ("Annan's Next Project: the U.N.," Jan. 17) shouldn't lead your readers to assume that unsubstantiated allegations of corruption made against U.N. staff working on the Oil-for-Food program are now proven. This isn't the case. Indeed, a little over a week ago, Paul Volcker revealed that his independent investigation into these allegations hadn't yet found a "smoking gun." But given the critical importance of the U.N.'s work, Secretary-General Kofi Annan takes even unproven allegations of corruption very seriously, as his establishment of the Volcker investigation and his instruction to U.N. staff to cooperate fully with it or be dismissed clearly show.
* Mr. Mortimer is director of communications in the office of the U.N. Secretary General.