Corp-Ethics.com - Report: AWB loses powers after Iraq probe

Company	AWB [Company Info]
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Date	Issue	Title
5th Dec 2006	Fraud Investigation	AWB loses powers after Iraq probe

Report

Australia's wheat exporter AWB is to temporarily lose its monopoly over wheat exports, after a report into bribes paid to Iraq's former regime.

A judicial inquiry found AWB broke United Nations oil-for-food programme rules by paying Saddam Hussein $222m (£112m) to secure contracts.

The government said AWB would lose its power to veto exports for six months.

Stripping AWB of its export control should help other Australian firms sell crops after this year's severe drought.

Australia has suffered its worst drought in a century, harming its wheat production.

Removing AWB's powers to control exports could help firms that want to sell their wheat and mean the limited wheat produced has a market.

"We see this as resolving the differences that exist in relation to the current crop," said Prime Minister John Howard.

Laws will be hurried through Parliament to take away AWB's power to veto competitors from exporting wheat.

Australia's wheat regime, by having a single body that decides who can export, has been criticised for pushing up prices.

A rival to AWB has said it will seek to export 2 million tonnes of wheat, having previously been vetoed by AWB.

The Australian government had threatened to end AWB's monopoly entirely amid wider plans to reform the tarnished wheat sector, following the oil-for-food scandal.

The inquiry cleared the Australian government of involvement in bribes.

AWB had been the largest single supplier of humanitarian goods to Iraq under the UN programme, which ran from 1996 to 2003.

The wheat supply came within a UN programme aimed at allowing Iraq to use money from oil exports to purchase food and medicine, to counter suffering caused by international sanctions under Saddam Hussein's regime.

Other Reports on AWB
Date	Issue	Company	Report
21st Dec 2006	Other Issue	AWB	US excludes AWB after Iraq probe
11th Jul 2006	Other Issue	AWB	AWB faces $1bn US farms lawsuit
13th Feb 2006	Questionable Practice	AWB	Iraq suspends dealings with AWB

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