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Sunday, June 19, 2005 11:01 a.m. EDT

Soros Helping Annan Aide

U.N. chief Kofi Annan, already besieged by the ever-expanding Iraq oil-for-food scandal, got more potential bad news on Friday.

In two stories appearing in the New York Sun, Annan's newly minted chief of staff, Mark Malloch Brown, is reported to be renting a suburban New York mansion from financier George Soros at a preferential rate.

According to the Sun, Malloch Brown's yearly rent is in the neighborhood of $120,000; however, the U.N. claims he makes a salary of $125,000 per annum.

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The newspaper did not disclose how Malloch Brown manages to afford the expense.

Before taking his latest position, the Annan chief of staff ran the U.N. Development Program. U.N.D.P. is the largest single operation at the world body and has been the recipient of numerous "grants" from Soros.

The second Sun story reported that the U.N.'s headquarters renovation plan may not move out of the state Legislature in Albany. If true, such a road block could prove problematical for the proposed renovation of the 50-year-old glass-walled Secretariat building, which straddles the East River.

On the rent question, NewsMax's Stew Stogel reports that Malloch Brown and other senior U.N. officials are able to afford high rents because they are the recipients of a "cost of living" escalator.

The escalator is often given to U.N. personnel who relocate to NYC from overseas postings. It was intended to "offset" the high cost of living in the Big Apple.

U.N. sources explain that the current escalator formula allows a U.N. staffer to receive approximately 52 percent of his gross annual salary as an addition to his regular pay. It is also tax free.

In Malloch Brown's case, his U.N. stipend should cover at least half the rent charged by Soros. While Brown's case is not unusual by U.N. standards, that of the secretary-general is.

Kofi Annan moved out of a condo he owned on Manhattan's trendy Roosevelt Island when he became the U.N. chief on January 1, 1997. U.N. sources confirm that Annan has since rented out the apartment on a commercial basis.

The official residence, 3 Sutton Place, is a chic townhouse on the Upper East Side. The United Nations does not own the building, but has tax-free use of it by the Corning Glass Corporation.

Annan, as has his predecessors, pays nothing in rent or upkeep of the home. Yet Annan also receives a cost of living escalator.

With an annual salary of $225,000, Annan receives more than $115,000 (tax free) for living expenses that are already paid for.

It is among the largest of all U.N. stipends, this for an official who has almost no expenses (he does buy his own clothes and pay for his hair cuts).

NewsMax has also learned that Annan's son Kojo, under investigation for his role in the oil-for-food program, used the U.N. official residence for private parties at least twice in the last four years.

In neither instance did Annan or Kojo offer to reimburse the U.N. for private use of the official residence. The U.N. would say only that the Annan compensation was in line with the world organization's rules.

While the United Nations continues to publicly plead poverty, it seems that politicians in Albany may be turning a blind eye.

The New York State Legislature has still not decided on whether to give the U.N. a green light to begin construction on a new office building on the site of a nearby city park. The new building would house U.N. workers while the landmark 38-story Secretariat undergoes extensive renovations.

Should Albany give a thumbs down, the U.N. is reported to be eyeing a second location in Brooklyn.

It is unclear how the world organization would relocate nearly 9,000 workers and diplomats to the outer borough. It is also unclear what the U.N. would do with the new building once the Secretariat reopened.

Meanwhile, emergency renovations are under way at the existing U.N. campus to prevent the headquarters from sinking into the East River.

Shortly after the 9/11 attacks in 2001, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers concluded that the U.N.'s four-level underground parking facility was dangerously exposed to a potential terrorist attack.

It was also found to be sinking into the nearby waterway.

Not only does the parking facility straddle the traffic-congested FDR Drive, it also sits beneath 1st Avenue, one of NYC's busiest thoroughfares.

Today, under pressure from Washington, major sections of the garage are no longer used, while other parts have restricted access. It is often shut down completely when major heads of state, such as George W. Bush, are visiting the U.N. compound.

Meanwhile, Kofi Annan is spending his summer awaiting the final report on the oil-for-food scandal by chief investigator Paul Volcker. The report, now due out in August, is expected to be highly critical of the U.N.'s administration of the $60 billion Iraqi aid program.

Coincidentally, Annan's longtime press spokesman, Fred Eckhard, has deciced to "retire" later this week after more than 25 years with the organization.

More than half of Annan's senior staff has left the U.N. since the oil-for-food scandal was first exposed two years ago.

Newsmax