What’s this I hear about Kofi Annan’s son Kojo? Annan son received $300,000 payments. (Hat tip: Midas Mulligan.)

Kojo Annan, son of Kofi Annan, United Nations secretary-general, received at least $300,000 from Cotecna, a Swiss inspection company awarded a contract ultimately worth about $60m under the Iraqi oil-for-food contract.

The amount was almost double the sum previously disclosed, but payments were arranged in ways that obscured where the money came from or whom it went to.

The discovery, in a joint investigation by Il Sole 24 Ore, the Italian business daily, and the Financial Times, comes as the independent UN inquiry led by Paul Volcker into possible abuses within the oil-for-food programme prepares to publish a new report on this matter.

Its findings, expected next Tuesday, will address allegations that Kojo’s family connections may have helped Cotecna obtain the UN contract.

Kojo Annan worked for Cotecna in Nigeria until December 1997. He was later retained first as a consultant and then on an unusual “non-compete” contract. Cotecna categorically denies any impropriety.

It insists his work had nothing to do with the UN contract and that it never took advantage of Kojo’s access to the secretary-general.

Well, I’m sure Cotecna’s telling the truth, right?

But the FT/Il Sole investigation reveals that senior executives from Cotecna met Kofi Annan on various occasions once at his UN office.

A UN spokesman said the meetings had nothing to do with a contract awarded under the oil-for-food programme. Kojo Annan declined to comment.

Oh.