Annan Faces New Claims in Oil-for-food Scandal

The future of the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, was once more in question yesterday after a commission of inquiry revealed it was "urgently reviewing" a newly disclosed document that cast fresh light on Mr Annan's role in the "oil-for-food" corruption scandal.

The document is a memo from Michael Wilson, the vice-president of Cotecna Inspection SA, which employed Mr Annan's son Kojo.

In the memo to his colleagues Mr Wilson mentions contacts with Mr Annan "and his entourage" in Paris in 1998, and claims that Cotecna "could count on their support" for its bid on the $10m (£5.5m) contract to help implement the oil-for-food humanitarian programme.

The Associated Press last night reported that a second memo from Mr Wilson had come to light expressing his confidence Cotecna would get the bid because of "effective but quiet lobbying" in New York diplomatic circles.

Mr Wilson is a childhood friend of Kojo Annan's and reportedly refers to Kofi Annan as "uncle". His memo was dated December 4 1998. A week later the company won the contract.

Mr Annan has repeatedly denied having any prior knowledge that his son's company was applying for a contract under the prewar scheme by which Iraq was allowed to sell oil to buy food, medicines and other basic supplies. The system has since been found to have been riddled with corruption and has been under scrutiny by the Volcker committee and the US Congress.

Yesterday, the secretary general's spokesman, Fred Eckhard, repeated that denial, saying the views attributed to the UN "secretariat" in the memo "could not have come from the secretary general because he had no knowledge that Cotecna was a contender for that contract".

An investigation into the oil-for-food scandal, headed by Paul Volcker, a former US federal reserve chairman, issued an interim report in March which accepted Mr Annan's assertion that he had no role in or knowledge of the award of the contract to Cotecna. That finding was considered crucial to Mr Annan's survival in the secretary general's post. But yesterday Mr Volcker's independent inquiry committee said it would "conduct additional investigation regarding this new information".

The new document surfaced as Cotecna conducted a search of its files on the oil-for-food contract. "One of these documents may result in speculation about the procurement of its oil-for-food authentication contract," the firm said in a statement yesterday. "Cotecna once again confirms that it acted at all times appropri ately and ethically in its bidding for, winning and performing that contract."

Mr Eckhard yesterday told the Guardian that UN officials had examined the records from the 1998 trip to Paris for a Franco-African summit, but found no evidence of a meeting with Mr Wilson.

"The secretary general has no recollection of that nor has the trip coordinator. Nor has a review of the trip files, which contain a final record of every meeting he has, shown any mention of this guy," Mr Eckhard said.

The committee yesterday issued a statement saying it was "urgently reviewing newly disclosed information concerning possible links" between Mr Annan and representatives of Cotecna ... while the secretary general's son was a consultant for the company.

Mr Annan was earlier found to have had meetings with two Cotecna executives before the award of the 1998 contract, which he had initially omitted to inform the Volcker investigators about.

The chief investigator, Robert Parton, believed Mr Annan's account had changed after being confronted with new facts. However, the final report took a more benign view of the omissions, saying Mr Annan "had checked the records and now remembered the meeting". Mr Parton resigned from the Volcker committee over the issue.