Senior UN official sacked over oil-for-food scandal

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has announced that a senior UN official has been dismissed over the oil-for-food scandal.

Joseph Stephanides, former Deputy Director of the Security Council Affairs Division, was told that he was “being separated from service for serious misconduct”, Mr Annan’s spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric announced.

An independent inquiry into the oil-for-food scandal, commissioned by the Secretary-General in February, found that a UN Steering Committee had “prejudiced and pre-empted the competitive process in a manner that rejected the lowest qualified bidder”. The report also alleged that Mr Stephanides had actively participated in the process and he was immediately suspended as a result.

According to the report, Mr Stephanides had “violated procurement rules” in order to enable Lloyd’s Register Inspection to secure a multi-million UN contract under oil-for-food. Mr Stephanides accepted that this was a technical violation of the rules, but argued that he acted to benefit the UN by negotiating the lowest price and not for personal gain.

The inquiry said that it “did not doubt” the sincerity of Mr Stephanides opinion that Lloyd’s was the best company for the contract or the fact that this was also the opinion of high-ranking UN officials and some members of the Security Council. However, it decided that rules, which should have been followed, had not been adhered to.

The former head of the oil-for-food programme, Benon Sevan, has also been suspended over the scandal. The inquiry alleged that Mr Sevan had “repeatedly solicited allocations of oil” under the programme, which had “created a grave and continuing conflict of interest.” However, the inquiry did not rule on whether Mr Sevan had personally profited from the affair. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Mr Dujarric said that disciplinary action against Mr Sevan had been suspended until the inquiry had finished their investigation of his activities. He said: “If administrative action is to be taken against Mr Sevan then it would be taken as a whole, instead of piecemeal.”

(KMcA/SP)