UN to take action against chief of Iraq oil-for-food

A second official, Joseph Stephanides, now director of Security Council affairs, was alleged to have intervened in selecting large contractors for the program he helped organize in 1996, before Sevan took over in late 1997.

Annan said he too would be disciplined and that if criminal acts were committed, diplomatic immunity would be lifted. The oil-for-food program, which began in December 1996 and ended in November 2003, allowed Saddam Hussein)’s government to sell oil in order to buy humanitarian goods.

It was intended to ease the life of ordinary Iraqis under 1990 UN sanctions.

The fraud allegations have cast a shadow over the world body and Annan himself, who chose Volcker to lead an independent investigation.

‘‘I think it is a fact that Sevan placed himself in a grave and continuing conflict of interest situation that violated explicit UN rules and violated the standards of integrity essential to a high-level international civil servant,’’ Volcker told a news conference.

Sevan, a Cypriot, issued his own statement. ‘‘Sevan never took a penny,’’ his lawyer Eric Lewis said. ‘‘Unfortunately, in the current political climate, the Independent Inquiry Committee needs to find someone to blame.’’

‘‘The secretary-general is shocked by what the report has to say about Sevan,’’ Annan’s chief of staff, Mark Malloch Brown, told a news conference.

‘‘He very much doubts there can be any extenuating circumstances to explain the behavior, which appears proven in the report.’’