Shouldn't Kofi Annan be Fired?

I'm actually here in LA this week on business, and reading the LA Times every morning. Today's edition has a cover story on Kofi Annan and the Oil-for-Palaces scandal. While he claims that he has been exonerated, I'm not so sure.

Most of the problems center around Kofi's son, Kojo. Kojo was employed by Cotecna in Africa (Kojo got the job through his father's connections) only because of his connections. The company tried hard to get to Kofi - meeting with him four times before and their successful $60 million inpsection contract in Iraq.

Volcker's report says Cotecna routed payments to Kojo Annan through front companies to disguise their origin and avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. It also said that Kojo Annan had lied to his father about the nature and extent of his dealings with Cotecna and Iraq, where he later aspired to do business.

Kojo is not cooperating with the inquiry (he stopped after one interview).

So, here is where we are so far:

o The chief of the Oil-for-Palaces program, Benon Sean, had a huge conflict of interest in steering contracts to his friends and could not account for money that appears to be a bribe.

o The scandal above with Kofi's son, Kojo.

o Annan's failure to fully investigate his son's affairs.

But, most importantly of all, the entire scandal happened under his watch. Billions of dollars were siphoned off by one of the world's worst dictators. And, yet, he feels exonerated.