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SYDNEY - The US Democrats are planning another investigation into kickbacks paid by the Australian Wheat Board (AWB) to Saddam Hussein's former regime in Iraq.
The party seized a majority of seats in both the US Senate and House of Representatives at last week's mid-term congressional elections.
They claim the Republican Party went soft on the prior investigation as "pay-off" in exchange for Prime Minister John Howard sending Australian troops to Iraq, The Australian reports.
The Democrats officially take power in January and have vowed to launch their investigation into the corruption allegations that AWB paid US$300 million ($454.9 million) to Saddam Hussein's regime to secure lucrative wheat exporting contracts to the beleaguered country, the newspaper reports.
The new House agriculture chairman, Collin Peterson, from the wheat state of Minnesota, and the new Senate agriculture chairman, Tom Harkin, from Iowa, have promised to review the circumstances that led to the scrapping of a 2004 probe into AWB by the US government.
"Keep in mind that AWB was the worst violator of the oil-for-food programme, the worst," Senator Harkin was quoted as saying in the Congress Daily in Washington yesterday.
The previous Volcker investigation in the US named the company as the largest single supplier of illicit funds to Saddam's regime.
Australia's Cole inquiry into the kickback allegations has concluded and is due to hand down its report on November 24.
At least 16 current and former executives may face criminal charges.
- AAP
