DFAT in dark on Iraq payments

Trade officials were in the dark over AWB's payment of millions in trucking fees to Iraq.

The trial of two former AWB executives over alleged kickbacks paid to Saddam Hussein's regime is examining what trade officials knew.

Professor Robert Bowker, who was the senior DFAT official charged with ensuring Australia met its Iraq sanction obligations, is giving testimony in Victoria's Supreme Court.

Prof Bowker on Monday said AWB never told DFAT it was paying millions of dollars to Iraq in trucking fees, and his testimony continues on Tuesday.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission says AWB paid $US223 ($A300 million) in kickbacks - in the form of trucking and after-sales service fees - into Iraq from 1999 to 2003.

Former AWB chairman Trevor James Flugge and group general manager trading Peter Anthony Geary are facing a civil trial for breach of duty, and they have denied any wrongdoing.


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Source: AAP


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