KOFI ANNAN’s top managers at the United Nations are facing a staff revolt that has gathered pace since the bombing of the UN office in Baghdad.

Staff representatives adopted a resolution yesterday criticising senior management after a string of clashes during the past year with their bosses at UN headquarters. The rebellion is an embarrassment for Mr Annan, and comes as he faces intense criticism for corruption in the UN’s “Oil-for-Food” programme in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.

The UN chief suffered another blow yesterday when he was forced to admit that civilian and peacekeeping personnel on UN duty in Congo had committed acts of gross misconduct.

Officials plan to make public on Monday the lurid results of their investigation into UN officials having sex with under-age local girls. Responding to staff complaints yesterday, the UN managers offered to hold talks next week with the elected president of the UN staff union, which represents thousands of UN workers and around the world.

Mr Annan will be travelling in Africa — first to the Iraq summit in Egypt and then to a Francophone meeting in Burkina Faso. But his chief of staff will try to defuse the tension by meeting with the staff union’s president, Rosemarie Waters.

“The idea is to keep dialogue going and see if we can sort out our differences so that it isn’t necessary to adopt resolutions saying they have no confidence in senior management,” Fred Eckhard, the UN spokesman, said. “We certainly like them to have more confidence in us and we hope we can achieve that through dialogue.”

Ms Waters drew a clear distinction between Mr Annan and his senior managers, with whom the staff union has clashed. “We have utmost confidence in our secretary-general,” she said. “He is a gentleman in a difficult situation in a difficult job, but he is doing the best he can.”

Frustration has been growing since the bombing of the UN’s Baghdad compound last year, which killed 22 people, including the UN special representative Sergio Vieira de Mello. But anger has erupted over the outcome of recent investigations into allegations of misconduct by top managers in the UN system.

First Mr Annan overruled the findings of an inquiry into groping charges against the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, a former Dutch Prime Minister. Mr Annan said the allegation that Mr Lubbers groped a 51-year-old female employee could not be substantiated. The woman has since dropped her complaint.

Then came the latest dispute, triggering yesterday’s vote, involving Dileep Nair, the Singaporean who serves as the UN’s anti-corruption watchdog.

The staff council called this year for an investigation of Mr Nair, the UN under-secretary for internal oversight services, after an anonymous letter accused him of trading promotions for money and sexual favours. Mr Annan announced last week that the investigation by the UN’s chief manager, Catherine Bertini, had exonerated Mr Nair.

But the staff union was furious that it had not been consulted by the investigators. “Throughout the six months duration of the investigation, despite being the complainant in this matter, the staff committee was neither informed that an investigation was taking place nor asked to clarify its concerns or provide testimony,” the staff union said yesterday. Its resolution said: “The staff council notes with great concern the trend of exonerating senior management officials in a series of violations further eroding the confidence of the staff in the senior management.”

The debate also revived other concerns of UN staff. An early draft of the resolution criticised Mr Annan for refusing to accept the offered resignation of his Canadian deputy, Louise Frechette, over security lapses before the Baghdad bombing.

It also said that Iqbal Riza, the chief of staff, should be brought to account for alleged nepotism because his son works for the UN in Lebanon.

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