Annan’s honesty a lesson for all
Sep 08, 2005
UNITED NATIONS Secretary General Kofi Annan, his deputy and the Security Council all share the blame for mismanagement of the oil-for-food programme that allowed Saddam Hussein to take more than $10b, investigators have said.
UNITED NATIONS Secretary General Kofi Annan, his deputy and the Security Council all share the blame for mismanagement of the oil-for-food programme that allowed Saddam Hussein to take more than $10b, investigators have said.
The programme was designed to enable ordinary Iraqis to survive through sanctions that had been placed on Saddam’s regime following defeat in the 1991 Gulf War. But the regime was able to go around the sanctions, if anything profiting while ordinary Iraqis suffered. This prompted the investigation to establish just how the world’s biggest humanitarian programme went wrong.
The independent panel’s findings lay the blame high and wide. It finds instances of “illicit, unethical and corrupt†behaviour in the $64b scheme, and blames the secretary general for mismanagement.
Annan has accepted responsibility. While there is no implying that he was personally corrupt, the secretary general has admitted that the findings are embarrassing, and that he took some of the blame.
This is refreshing. So many times in Uganda, we have seen cases of gross mismanagement— whether in politics, the military, public service, business, or civil administration — being glossed over because the managers have passed the buck. The thinking seems to be that accepting responsibility implies personal corruption, and therefore possibly resignation from the post. Normally matters just end there.
But this need not necessarily be so. It is unlikely that Annan will lose his job just because he accepted the blame. Rather, what he has done is going to benefit the UN immensely because the focus is now going to shift to the system’s failures with a view to rectifying them.
The inadequacy of the framework of control and auditing will now be addressed. The probe says that the flaws exposed by the oil-for-food debacle run deeper, and have been there for the 60 years that the UN has existed. Annan’s honesty will help sort these out, leaving a legacy that could exist long after he has gone.
The programme was designed to enable ordinary Iraqis to survive through sanctions that had been placed on Saddam’s regime following defeat in the 1991 Gulf War. But the regime was able to go around the sanctions, if anything profiting while ordinary Iraqis suffered. This prompted the investigation to establish just how the world’s biggest humanitarian programme went wrong.
The independent panel’s findings lay the blame high and wide. It finds instances of “illicit, unethical and corrupt†behaviour in the $64b scheme, and blames the secretary general for mismanagement.
Annan has accepted responsibility. While there is no implying that he was personally corrupt, the secretary general has admitted that the findings are embarrassing, and that he took some of the blame.
This is refreshing. So many times in Uganda, we have seen cases of gross mismanagement— whether in politics, the military, public service, business, or civil administration — being glossed over because the managers have passed the buck. The thinking seems to be that accepting responsibility implies personal corruption, and therefore possibly resignation from the post. Normally matters just end there.
But this need not necessarily be so. It is unlikely that Annan will lose his job just because he accepted the blame. Rather, what he has done is going to benefit the UN immensely because the focus is now going to shift to the system’s failures with a view to rectifying them.
The inadequacy of the framework of control and auditing will now be addressed. The probe says that the flaws exposed by the oil-for-food debacle run deeper, and have been there for the 60 years that the UN has existed. Annan’s honesty will help sort these out, leaving a legacy that could exist long after he has gone.