Australia extends Saddam 'bribes' inquiry

By Sundeep Tucker 
March 6, 2006
The Financial Times
Original Source: http://news.ft.com/cms/s/04745ade-acb6-11da-8226-0000779e2340.html

Australia's official inquiry into whether its monopoly wheat exporter paid A$300m ($223m, £127m, ¬ 185m) in bribes to Saddam Hussein's regime under the United Nations' oil-for-food programme is to be extended by two months, it was announced yesterday, raising the prospect that investigators will unearth further damaging evidence.

The inquiry was scheduled to report to the government by 31 March but on Friday night, Terence Cole, the presiding judge, requested further time to probe more key witnesses and to sift through documents relating to AWB. John Howard, Australian prime minister, who set up the inquiry, said yesterday that he had granted the request for extra time.
The inquiry has yet to unearth any direct evidence showing that the government was told about the alleged kickbacks, but a stream of startling revelations has dented the government's reputation and placed it daily on the defensive. The inquiry's terms of reference do not include directly probing the government's role in the affair.
Since the inquiry started in mid-January, several former employees of AWB have alleged that the company knew it was defying UN rules by paying bribes to secure lucrative wheat contracts. The fall-out has also led to the resignation of Andrew Lindberg, AWB chief executive, and raised the prospect of the company losing its monopoly status.
Kim Beazley, opposition leader, saidMr Cole needed broader terms of reference. John Howard and his ministers are culpably negligent here, and that needs to be properly tested.
Mr Howard yesterday also hinted that the government could change its policy of not selling uranium to India because of New Delhi's refusal to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Australia is home to 40 per cent of the world's easily recoverable uranium reserves and exports it to 36 countries.

The prime minister, who today starts a three-day official visit to India, hailed last week's ground-breaking nuclear pact between India and the US. We'll study the [US-India] deal and if there are things that should additionally be done that are in Australia's interests, then we'll do them, he said.