Accountable

美國國務卿鮑威爾昨天代表布什政府宣稱，聯合國秘書長安南應對最近聯合國“石油換食品”計劃中出現的失誤負全責。外電報道如下：The Bush administration, which earlier backed Secretary-General Kofi Annan in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal, on Tuesday demanded he be held accountable for mismanagement in the program. "What we have heard, so far, is that there were serious problems inside the U.N. on the management of this. We're not sure if there were criminal problems, but there were certainly management problems,"outgoing Secretary of State Colin Powell told Fox News. "And the secretary-general will have to be accountable for those management problems," he added in the television interview. Accountable在這里的意思是“負有責任的，有義務的”。例如：He is accountable to us for this action.(他應該為這次行動負責。) 此外,accountable還有“應加解釋的，應加說明的”的含義,例如:an accountable phenomenon(應做解釋的現象)。 據悉，“石油換食品”計劃旨在緩解伊拉克人民的生活困境，允許伊利用石油出口收入進口急需的食物藥品等物資。該計劃由伊拉克與聯合國安理會共同簽署和負責實施，對緩解伊人道主義危機起到一定作用。在伊拉克戰爭前，該國有60%的人口依靠“石油換食品”計劃提供的食品援助生存。然而從去年1月份開始，媒體報道聯合國官員在該計劃執行中存在操作失誤和巨額腐敗。一家伊拉克報紙當時報道說，薩達姆曾用伊拉克的石油收入賄賂來自46個國家的270多名外國政界和新聞界人士，包括“石油換食品”計劃管理辦公室負責人以謀求國際社會支持。目前針對計劃中出現的嚴重問題，調查正在進一步進行之中。 （中國日報網站編）