Oil-for-food: UN staff man sacked

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan fired staff member Joseph Stephanides for wrongdoing in the oil-for-food scandal, a UN spokesman said today – the first dismissal stemming from alleged corruption in the multibillion-dollar programme.

Annan concluded Stephanides, of Cyprus, committed ”serious misconduct,” UN associate spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

“Mr Stephanides was advised accordingly yesterday and was separated from service with immediate effect,” Dujarric said.

An independent probe led by former US Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker had accused two other UN staff members of wrongdoing in oil-for-food.

Action against former oil-for-food chief Benon Sevan has been suspended until Volcker’s probe finishes its work because he is still a target of the probe. Sevan was accused of a “grave conflict of interest” in soliciting oil deals from Iraq.

And Dileep Nair, the now-retired chief of the UN watchdog agency, had allegedly paid an employee with money from the £35 billion programme although the staffer’s work was not directly tied to it. Annan sent a letter expressing disappointment but took no action.

Stephanides, head of the UN Security Council Affairs Division, had been accused of tainting the competitive bidding process for a company to inspect humanitarian goods entering Iraq under the programme.

His contacts with an unnamed UN mission – which a UN committee acquiesced to for political reasons – led to Lloyd’s Register Inspection Limited winning the contract even though there was a lower bidder, it said.

Annan has dismissed 40 staff members including Stephanides since becoming secretary-general in 1997, Dujarric said. Stephanides had been set to retire this summer.