Sacked Oil-for-Food Staffer: I’m a Patsy
Charles Johnson
Sat Jun 4, 2005 at 6:42 pm PDT • Views: 243
Joseph Stephanides, the Oil-for-Food official fired on June 1 by Kofi Annan, says he was sacked to take the heat off Annan and other United Nations kingpins: Sacked Oil-for-Food Staffer: I’m a Patsy. (Hat tip: Newsbeat 1.)
Coming out swinging two days after his client was canned, the lawyer for Cypriot mid-level bureaucrat Joseph Stephanides said he plans a major battle against U.N. leadership to get reinstated and refute charges he engaged in “serious misconduct” in the award of a lucrative inspection contract to a British firm.
Lawyer George Irving told The Post Stephanides was “essentially the messenger” when he warned the British mission to the United Nations in 1996 that the company Lloyd’s Register needed to substantially lower its tender in order to beat out a French firm that submitted the lowest bid.
The commission investigating the oil-for-food scandal headed by former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker charged Stephanides was acting independently during his talks with the British mission.
But Irving provided The Post with internal documents dated in August 1996 that show Stephanides made at least five superiors aware that Lloyd’s was better-suited to handle the oil-for-food inspection contract and that he was recommending that it lower the cost of the bid.
“My client has been made a scapegoat to divert attention from others,” Irving said.
Frank says: