Australia's PM Howard denies Iraq bribes cover-up
By Margaret Hilda,WNS Sydney Correspondent
SYDNEY - Australian Prime Minister John Howard Monday denied any cover-up of the government's role in the payment of huge bribes to former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein ahead of the release of a damning report. Howard was speaking just hours before parliament was presented with the long-awaited conclusions of an inquiry into the corruption of the UN's oil-for-food programme in Iraq by national monopoly wheat exporter AWB.
The report is widely tipped to recommend criminal charges against former AWB executives but government officials, including Howard, are not expected to face legal action. Howard, heading into an election next year, rejected opposition charges that government complicity in the corruption had been shielded from investigation by limits to the commission of inquiry's terms of reference. "That allegation is totally false," he said in a radio address. Howard and two of his senior ministers were called to appear before the inquiry where they denied knowledge of the corruption by the AWB, formerly the Australian Wheat Board before it was privatised in 1999.
The inquiry by former judge Terence Cole was established in January after a UN report said AWB paid 220 million dollars in bribes to secure wheat contracts worth 2.3 billion dollars under the oil-for-food programme. The UN programme was designed to allow Iraq to use money from oil exports to buy food and medicine to relieve the civilian suffering caused by international sanctions against Saddam before he was toppled in 2003. The UN inquiry, led by former US federal reserve banking chief Paul Volcker, reported in October 2005 that AWB was the biggest offender among some 2,000 companies worldwide that were involved in corrupting the programme.
The report is widely tipped to recommend criminal charges against former AWB executives but government officials, including Howard, are not expected to face legal action. Howard, heading into an election next year, rejected opposition charges that government complicity in the corruption had been shielded from investigation by limits to the commission of inquiry's terms of reference. "That allegation is totally false," he said in a radio address. Howard and two of his senior ministers were called to appear before the inquiry where they denied knowledge of the corruption by the AWB, formerly the Australian Wheat Board before it was privatised in 1999.
The inquiry by former judge Terence Cole was established in January after a UN report said AWB paid 220 million dollars in bribes to secure wheat contracts worth 2.3 billion dollars under the oil-for-food programme. The UN programme was designed to allow Iraq to use money from oil exports to buy food and medicine to relieve the civilian suffering caused by international sanctions against Saddam before he was toppled in 2003. The UN inquiry, led by former US federal reserve banking chief Paul Volcker, reported in October 2005 that AWB was the biggest offender among some 2,000 companies worldwide that were involved in corrupting the programme.
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