The following editorial appeared in the Orlando Sentinel on Wednesday, Dec. 8:

In the years leading up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Saddam Hussein made a mockery of U.N. economic sanctions. U.S. Senate investigators have estimated that Iraq illegally amassed $21.3 billion so that Saddam could tighten his chokehold on his people.

Senate investigators have concluded that Iraq got at least a third of the dirty money through cheating on the U.N.-monitored oil-for-food program. Reports of mismanagement and corruption in the program have done serious damage to U.N. clout and credibility.

The best way to begin repairing the damage is for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan – on whose watch the oil-for-food scandal occurred – to accept responsibility and step down.

While there has been no evidence that Annan did anything illegal, records found in Iraq have implicated the senior U.N. official in charge of the program. Yet Annan’s choice to investigate the scandal, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, has balked at sharing information with Congress while the internal probe crawls on.

Annan’s reputation also has been hurt by his son’s links to the oil-for-food program. Kojo Annan stopped working for a Swiss company days before it won a contract in 1998 to monitor the shipment of goods into Iraq under the program. He continued to draw a monthly stipend and health benefits from the company into this year.

The secretary-general said he had nothing to do with the company’s contract, and didn’t realize until recently that his son had received ongoing payments. But Annan was quite correct in conceding that the payments and other allegations of corruption swirling around the program had created a “perception of conflict of interests and wrongdoing.”

Republican Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota, a former prosecutor leading one of several congressional investigations, has called on Annan to resign. Other conservatives, who have never had much use for the United Nations, also have called for the secretary-general to go. …

But those who recognize and appreciate the good that the United Nations can accomplish – including those who agreed with Annan on the war – should be echoing Coleman’s call. …

Annan would best serve the organization to which he has dedicated his career by stepping down.

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