Australia's Wheat Cheats

The Inquiry into Australia’s ‘Wheat Cheats’ is starting to bite into the reluctance of AWB executives and the Howard Government. Despite attempts by Howard to limit the ability of the Cole Inquiry to investigate UN claims, the barriers are now unraveling.
Revelations already shine a spotlight on the roles of Prime Minister Howard, and ministers Downer and Vaile in the long running culture of corruption in the AWB.

The inquiry into Australian involvement in the UN's oil-for-food scandal heard that wheat deals with Pakistan in the late 1990s, when the wheat board was still under Howard government control, included $US12million in payments to an "agent".
The Australian Newspaper (Monday, January 30, 2006)

...As the Cole inquiry unfolding in Sydney over the past few weeks has revealed the AWB paid $2 million to finally get that off the docks and agreed, on that visit alone, to a further $8 million in kickbacks to be hidden in future contracts. The Government insists it had no idea the AWB was paying kickbacks to the Iraqi Government and at the time, their efforts were lauded.

...As the sabre-rattling and diplomatic stand-off continued, the Australian Wheat Board chief Andrew Lindburgh and two other senior AWB executives were in Baghdad face-to-face with the regime trying to salvage one of this country's most valuable trade deals. We now know their mission, in their own words, was to insulate the AWB's relationship with Iraq from national politics. In retaliation for Australia's rhetorical attacks on Iraq, the regime had torn up the AWB's contract. Four wheat shipments sat unloaded in the port of Umm Qasr. MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: ABC.com.au