On the first day of June, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has fired Oil-for-Food official Joseph Stephanides. (Hat tip: many LGF readers.)

June 1 (Bloomberg) — United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan yesterday fired Joseph Stephanides, an official in the Iraq oil-for-food program, for misconduct in the awarding of a contract to a company that inspected humanitarian goods imported by former dictator Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, who is investigating allegations of corruption in the program, said in a Feb. 3 report that Stephanides “tainted” the process of hiring Lloyds Register Inspection Ltd. by telling the U.K. company how much to lower its bid to win the 1996 contract.

“After a thorough review of all aspects of the case, the secretary-general has decided that Mr. Joseph Stephanides be summarily dismissed for serious misconduct, in accordance with the United Nations staff regulations,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters today at the UN.