UN official changes tune over AWBSeptember 20, 2006 - 6:44AMThe...

UN official changes tune over AWB


September 20, 2006 - 6:44AM

The United Nations' chief corruption investigator says he now believes Australian wheat exporter AWB Ltd deliberately rorted the Iraqi oil-for-food program and lied to his investigators over it.

In a forthcoming book, reported by Wednesday's The Australian, Paul Volcker says there is a "strong likelihood" that AWB Ltd always knew the $290 million it funnelled to a Jordanian trucking company was for the benefit of Saddam Hussein's regime.

Mr Volker makes his comments in an introduction to a new book, Good Intentions Corrupted: the Oil for Food Program and the Threat to the UN, which is due for launch at the UN in New York on September 30.

The Australian's reporter writes, however, that the newspaper has obtained a copy at a New York bookstore.

AWB is under investigation over $290 million in kickbacks to the former Iraqi regime.

On Monday, the federal court pre-empted the report of the Cole inquiry by ruling AWB had "deliberately and dishonestly" conspired to defraud the UN.

His comments represent a major shift for Mr Volker, who in October last year concluded in his final report to the UN that there was "no evidence" that AWB was willingly involved in the kickback scam, although several employees "should have known", The Australian reports.

Mr Volcker criticises the Australian government for failing to detect and stop the rorting, but he praises the government for setting up the Cole inquiry.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/UN-official-changes-tune-over-AWB/2006/09/20/1158431742331.html