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.