Australia wheat bribes report due
By Howart Dan,WNS Australia Bureau Chief
SYDNEY - An Australian investigation into claims that the country's monopoly wheat exporter bribed Saddam Hussein is due to hand in its report. Government investigators have claimed that the Australian Wheat Board (AWB) paid $220m in kickbacks to the former Iraqi president. The AWB was the largest single supplier of humanitarian goods under the UN's oil-for-food programme. The scandal-ridden programme ran in Iraq from 1996 to 2003. Opposition politicians in Australia have described the AWB affair as the country's "biggest-ever corruption" scandal.
The wheat exporter is accused of paying bribes to Saddam Hussein to secure contracts worth more than $2bn under the UN's oil-for-food programme. The allegations have been investigated by the Cole Commission, which has heard more than 70 days of evidence in Sydney. Among the witnesses were Prime Minister John Howard and his foreign and trade ministers. They have denied knowing that kickbacks were being paid to the former Iraqi leader.
Dr Andrew Vincent from Macquarie University says the investigation into the AWB has made life uncomfortable for the prime minister. "It did seem to reveal that either the government didn't know what was happening," he said, "in which case the government was incompetent. "Or the government did know what was happening - in which case the government was colluding with an illegal act." The commission, headed by retired judge Terence Cole, will decide if the AWB broke any Australian laws in its dealings in Iraq. If it believes it did, then former company executives could be prosecuted.
posted by wnsworld @ 6:18 PM
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