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Saddam helped Aussie company paying kickbacks - inquiry
(AFP)
Updated: 2006-02-08 09:08
Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein personally intervened to assist
Australia's monopoly wheat exporter distribute its grain while it was paying his
government kickbacks, an inquiry was told.
The revelation came at an Australian inquiry into monopoly wheat exporter
AWB's alleged payment of millions of dollars in kickbacks to Baghdad under the
United Nations' discredited oil-for-food program.
A document released to the inquiry on Tuesday, written by former AWB
executive Dominic Hogan, details a meeting between an executive with Jordanian
transport company Alia and Saddam Hussein over delays AWB shipments were
experiencing in Iraqi ports.
Alia, 49 percent owned by the Iraqi government, collected trucking fees from
AWB which were channelled through to Baghdad.
In an email, Hogan wrote about a visit to Jordan in August 2001 during which
he met Alia general manager Othman Al-Absi.
Hogan wrote that Al-Absi had recently met with Saddam to lobby for an end to
costly shipping delays at Umm Qasr port.
"Othman raised the issue about delayed discharge at port of Umm Qasr and the
lengthy delays of the vessels," Hogan's report says.
"(The) President was not pleased as he had been receiving reports that all
was in order.
"President ordered all outstanding vessels to be discharged and situation to
be fixed."
The 1996-2003 UN oil-for-food programme was designed to allow Iraq to export
a limited amount of oil, with the proceeds being used to purchase food and
medicine to lessen the impact of sanctions on civilians.
But a United Nations report into corruption of the programme named AWB as
paying the biggest kickbacks to the Iraqi government, with some 220 million US
dollars funnelled through Alia between 1999 and 2003.
AWB, which was owned by the government until mid-1999, has denied knowingly
paying bribes, with executives saying they believed the cash was paid to Alia to
cover transport of the wheat inside Iraq.
But in earlier evidence, Hogan told the inquiry that AWB executives were
aware of the kickbacks.
Questioned on this on Tuesday, he said that an Alia agent had openly told him
that the Iraqis controlled the company's trucking services.
Alia was "acting as the conduit to get the funds into Iraq," Hogan said. "The
money was always going into Iraq."
The AWB scandal dominated parliament when it resumed for the first time this
year, with Prime Minister John Howard and his Deputy and Trade Minister Mark
Vaile fielding queries on the government's knowledge of the kickbacks.
Vaile denied that the government should have noticed the suspiciously high
prices AWB was charging on its wheat contracts with Iraq.
"It was always the UN's role to approve the oil-for-food contracts ...
including assessing value and price -- not that of the Australian government,"
he told parliament.
However, evidence given to the inquiry late Tuesday suggested the Australian
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) investigated Alia in 2000.
In a statement to the inquiry AWB executive Charles Stott said: "(DFAT
officer Jane) Drake-Brockman told me that DFAT had looked into Alia."
The statement contradicts the government's comments that the first it knew of
AWB's payments to Alia was after the UN released its report into the affair in
October 2005.
The government rejected the allegations, saying DFAT never approved AWB's use
of Alia and has no record of being advised about the connection between the
companies in the context of the Jane Drake-Brockman exchange.
AWB shares, which were trading at above 6.00 dollars in January, fell almost
10 percent Tuesday to close down 0.45 at 4.19 dollars.
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