Wheat exporter sorry for kickbacks
May 17, 2006
CNN
Original Source: http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/05/17/australia.awb/index.html

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Australia's monopoly wheat exporter apologized to the public for paying kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime, in a statement released for the first time Thursday by a public inquiry into the alleged corruption.
In the six-paragraph statement, drafted in December, AWB Ltd.'s former managing director Andrew Lindberg acknowledged the wheat exporter made the payments to Hussein as part of the discredited United Nations Oil-For-Food program.
As a result of the Volker inquiry into the OFF program AWB accepts that in paying money for inland transportation and after sales service it paid money to the Iraq government in contravention of UN sanctions, Lindberg's statement said.
Even though there were warning signs to some employees that this may have been occurring AWB did not challenge these payments and was not alert to the potential consequences of making these payments, he added.
For this we are truly sorry and deeply regret any damage this may have caused to Australia's trading reputation, the Australian government or the United Nations.
AWB fought and lost a legal battle in a bid to prevent the letter being published.