Kofi Annan sounds more like Woldcom’s Bernie Ebbers every day and this is not a good thing for people hoping for reform within the UN. Alternating between being defiant and just plan in denial, Mr. Annan stated that Paul Volcker’s second interim report on the UN’s Oil for Food program “cleared me of any wrongdoing.”

Just look at the report and exactly what it says about Mr. Annan’s definition of exoneration.

Mr. Volcker’s report indicates an “adverse finding” against the Secretary General including patterns of willful neglect, conflict of interest and incompetence. The report also shows mis-statement, mis-speaking, and failed recollections (which Pre-Clinton we would have termed lying and cover-up) by Mr. Annan with regard to the probe and its allegations.

The report also shows mismanagement, incompetence and conflict-of-interest failures up and down the organization.

After thoroughly reviewing the report Mr. Annan played up the spin that it somehow acquitted him of any wrongdoing. Playing dumb, not remembering details, and acting defiant didn’t work for Mr. Ebbers in the wake of MCI’s collapse and it hopefully it won’t work for Mr. Annan. Either way we shouldn’t hold our breadth waiting for the UN to clean its own house. As any “12-stepper” knows the first step is recognizing that there is a problem.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 19th, 2005 at 6:33 pm by Insider and is filed under Brilliant, but uncategorizable. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.