Fed: Downer defends department over handling of AWB scandal=3

AAP General News (Australia)
04-11-2006
Fed: Downer defends department over handling of AWB scandal=3

The inquiry has previously heard how the government was warned in January 2000 about
Canada's complaints regarding AWB's contracts with Iraq.

The US Wheat Associates also complained about AWB's contracts in June 2003, three months
after the fall of Saddam's regime.

That same month, a US Army captain working with the Coalition Provisional Authority
(CPA) in Baghdad also warned that all contracts with Saddam's government had contained
kickbacks of 10 per cent.

Allegations of kickbacks continued to dog AWB into October 2003, when the federal government
received another cable urging it to get the wheat exporter to make a public statement
about the scandal.

Mr Agius asked Mr Downer today if anyone from his office or department pulled together
all the warnings from 2000 and 2003 and raised it with him.

The minister said he didn't know.

Mr Downer said the first warning in 2000 he believed had been resoled by the United
Nations, which had found no evidence of irregularities in AWB's contracts.

He also did not pay that much attention to the allegations raised by the US Wheat Associates
because they were AWB's main rivals in the lucrative Iraq market.

And he downplayed the importance of the concerns raised by the US Army captain, saying
he was a junior member of the military and at the time the CPA was in the early stages
of examining the inner workings of Saddam's government.

The inquiry continues.

AAP bt/hn/sp

KEYWORD: AWB DOWNER 3 SYDNEY

2006 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.