http://www.thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx?StoryName=356500
It’s one of the oddest, more outlandish contracting stories to come out of Iraq that began with Australian kickbacks to Saddam Hussein’s regieme and then continued after the American invasion.
The illicit wheat sales began with the Australian Wheat Board circumventing what was known as the United Nations food-for-oil progam. The program allowed humanitarian trade deals with Iraq despite tight sanctions following the 1991 Gulf War when Saddam invaded Kuwait. Australian investigators found that close to $300 million in Australian kickbacks went to Saddam Hussein and his cronies so that the Australian Wheat board could secure contractos for hundreds of millions of dollars in wheat sales.
Those contracts were still standing after the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the toppling of Saddam.
http://www.wabusinessnews.com.au/en-story/1/48980/Govt-paid-AWB-260K-for-adviser-to-Iraq
I am trying to figure out what happened to the AWB contracts with Iraq after
the invasion. Apparently, they continued — at least from what I gather from
the Program Review Board minutes of Oct.11, 2003 and the sudden appearance
of Trevor Flugge as Senior Advisor, Ministry of Agriculture:
“#515 Ð Oil for Food Contracts – $ 0.00 Ð The Board voted to recommend that
Ambassador Bremer authorize the UN Office Iraqi Program (OIP) to proceed
with funding of these contracts with un-obligated funds available to OIP per
UN Security Council Resolution 1472 & 1483..”