PRESS STATEMENT

Paul A. Volcker

Chairman, Independent Inquiry Committee

 

5 May 2005

 

Questions have arisen over a single point in the Independent Inquiry Committee’s recent Interim Report leading to calls within Congress for an investigation.  Let me be clear.  What is at issue is not a subsidiary point in our Report.  On that matter all the relevant evidence has been fully reported and the reader can make his own judgment.  Rather, it is a question of the ability of the IIC, as mandated by the Security Council, to complete its important and sensitive work.  That work requires confidentiality with respect both to sources who have entrusted the Inquiry with vital information and to the Committee’s own deliberations.

 

I am confident that our report contains all the relevant factual information gathered by my investigative team concerning Secretary-General Annan and his son.  It is only the inferences drawn from those facts that are subject to different conclusions and where two former staff members may have disagreed.  However, it is the Committee’s responsibility to draw the conclusions from the facts that we believe are most appropriate.  In any event, at the end of the day, the facts must speak for themselves.

 

On the specifics of requesting IIC staff to respond to Congressional questions, I stated in a letter this morning to Chairman Shays (copy attached), the need to proceed with caution in order to preserve the integrity of our investigation.  In keeping with protections afforded to investigatory bodies, including in the US, I stressed that “In particular, all investigations that confront serious allegations of fraud, corruption, misuse and mismanagement must enjoy a degree of secrecy as evidence is being gathered.”  This issue goes to the heart of our ability to follow investigative leads and develop investigative information.

 

There is also the question of the integrity of staff to uphold commitments they entered into when accepting employment from the Inquiry.  Staff members who have voluntarily assumed the privileges and responsibilities associated with work with the IIC cannot, in my judgment, reasonably and honorably unilaterally violate those pledges of confidentiality and acceptance of immunity at the expense of their former colleagues and the investigation itself.

 

There is now some question as to whether those commitments have been breached, despite the protections they provide to those working in an atmosphere of mutual confidence.

 

Finally, in the interests of transparency, I have attached to this statement correspondence received this morning from Mr. Robert Parton’s attorney and the IIC response to it.

 

Letter to Chairman Shays

Letter from Mr. Davis

IIC Response to Mr. Davis