Commissioner Terence Cole is investigating 300-million dollars in bribes paid by Australia's former monopoly wheat exporter, A-W-B, to the former Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein.
The money was funnelled into the former Iraqi dictator's government through so-called trucking fees paid to a Jordanian-based transport firm, Alia.
A senior legal adviser to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has told a Senate estimates hearing the cost of hiring outside lawyers for the Cole inquiry could reach up to one-point-two-million dollars.