AWB inquiry starts today

CANBERRA - An inquiry starts today into Australian wheat exporter AWB's role in propping up dictator Saddam Hussein's regime through a discredited United Nations program.

The probe, headed by former NSW judge Terence Cole, QC, will decide whether the former Australian Wheat Board's actions under the UN oil-for-food program amounted to bribery or broke any other Australian laws.

AWB's current and former hierarchy will be the first witnesses at the hearings, which are expected to run for a month.

A UN-appointed inquiry, led by former US Federal Reserve chief Paul Volcker, found AWB accounted for A$300 million ($327.3 million) of the A$2.4 billion in illicit payments pocketed by Saddam under the program.

The Volcker report, released in October, named 2,200 companies as giving kickbacks to the despot, with AWB the single biggest provider.

While there was no direct evidence AWB had knowingly given kickbacks, Mr Volcker found the company's staff should have realised where the money was going.

Former AWB managing director Murray Rogers will be the inquiry's first witness, followed by former chairman Trevor Flugge and current managing director Andrew Lindberg.

The inquiry is due to report by March 31.

- AAP