Australia: We Knew of Iraq, U.N. Concerns

By Ed Johnson
February 28, 2006
The Washington Post
Original Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/28/AR2006022801914.html

SYDNEY, Australia, Associated Press -- Australia's prime minister confirmed Wednesday his government knew of U.N. concerns that the country's monopoly wheat exporter might be paying kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime to secure lucrative contracts.
John Howard said the government looked into the concerns and accepted assurances that no improper payments were being made, reiterating long-standing denials that government officials knew about alleged kickbacks.
Documents released Tuesday to an official inquiry into AWB Ltd.'s business dealings in Iraq show the U.N. was concerned of possible kickbacks as early as 2000, and asked the Australian government to investigate. Such payments would break the rules of the U.N. oil-for-food program.
Howard said the U.N. warning had sounded alarm bells in his government. He insisted that the claims had been investigated.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, meanwhile, said the government had accepted AWB's assurance that it was not paying bribes.
Proper inquiries were made, contracts were obtained and the United Nations said that the misperceptions had been removed, Howard said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio Wednesday.
An inquiry headed by former state Supreme Court judge Terence Cole is investigating whether AWB executives knowingly paid up to $222 million in bribes to Saddam's regime to win wheat contracts. Investigators say the kickbacks were paid as bogus transport fees to a Jordanian trucking company partially owned by the Iraqi government.
Senior AWB officials have not denied making the payments, but some have suggested they had no reason to believe the trucking fees were not legitimate or that they violated sanctions.
The inquiry is expected to report its findings in late March. Cole cannot file any charges, but can recommend that officials or executives be prosecuted.
Howard has come under sustained pressure from opposition politicians throughout the seven-week inquiry, and Cole has indicated he will investigate what the federal government knew of the alleged payments.