the pain begins : bills to pay, page-2

Downer 'knew' about AWB kickbacks

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Richard Baker
November 20, 2007
Former Austrade director John Finnin.

Former Austrade director John Finnin.
Photo: Penny Stephens
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AUSTRALIA's former top Middle East trade official has broken his silence on AWB's kickbacks to Iraq, saying the Howard Government's claim it was unaware of key elements of the scandal is unbelievable.

Almost a year after Terence Cole, QC, handed down his report clearing the Government of culpability in the AWB scandal, former Austrade director John Finnin has spoken out for the first time, telling of his failure to understand how the Government could maintain it had never heard of trucking firm Alia until April 2004 when he and another Austrade official had discussed wheat contracts with its owners eight months earlier.

It was through Alia that AWB paid Saddam Hussein's regime $290 million in kickbacks disguised as trucking fees. Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer last year said no minister or public servant had heard of Alia until the United Nations began to investigate rorting of its oil-for-food program in Iraq in April 2004.

But Mr Finnin, who was not questioned by the Cole inquiry and resigned as Austrade director for Europe, Middle East and North Africa last year, said reports of his September 2003 meeting in Jordan with Alia's owners — the al-Khawam family — and the former head of the Iraqi Grains Board should have been cabled to Canberra as a matter of course.

"I was the senior trade officer in the region and Iraq was my responsibility. The Foreign Minister had enough advisers to know that (the meeting occurred)," he said.

"I was surprised that I wasn't asked to appear before Cole … but I was more surprised when Downer said no Government official had met Alia."

Since leaving Austrade, Mr Finnin has been embroiled in controversy as chief executive of fuel-technology firm Firepower, which sponsors top rugby and basketball teams in Australia and is under investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

He was dismissed by the company in August after it was revealed he was being investigated by Victoria and Australian Federal Police over child-sex allegations. He has strenuously denied the allegations.

In a statement released last night, Austrade said: "No cable or report was generated within Austrade following the meeting between Austrade officials and representatives of the al-Khawam family as the meeting did not cover substantive issues, but rather provided a general outline of Australian supply capabilities that may have been of interest to the al-Khawam family's diverse transportation activities. These introductory meetings with potential customers are standard activities conducted by Austrade representatives in all international markets."

But Mr Finnin said the meeting was explicitly about AWB's final wheat contracts under the UN program. The Government was "very focused" on ensuring they were paid out, he said.

According to a report of the meeting by Austrade's Jordan manager Ramzi Maaytah, former Iraqi Grains Board director Yousef Abdul Rahman said the US-led authority governing Iraq after Saddam Hussein's defeat had a dim view of the final AWB contracts, which had been heavily inflated with kickbacks. The contracts were eventually honoured after extensive lobbying of the US by Australia.

A former senior Australian diplomat serving in the region in 2003 has also told The Age of the Government's concern over AWB's contracts. "The over-riding preoccupation of the Government at the time was the wheat contracts in Iraq. The matters in the country I was stationed in were secondary," the former diplomat said.

In Parliament two months ago, Labor MP Kelvin Thomson said Mr Cole's decision not to question Mr Finnin or Mr Maaytah was "a glaring omission in the work of his inquiry".