When Integrity Breaks Down: The Australian Wheat Board Example

From 1999 to 2003 AWB (International), the international wheat trading arm of Australian agribusiness company AWB, made clandestine payments of some $US222m in illicit kickbacks to the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq. These payments were associated with sales of wheat under the United Nations’ Oilfor-Food Programme (OFF). Sale of wheat was a legitimate objective of that programme, but through sham ‘transport’ payments the AWB and the Iraqi government were able to subvert the intent of the programme that no funds would be transferred to the Iraqi government for spending on non-humanitarian purposes. Although the scandal was labelled ‘wheat for weapons’ by the Labor Opposition party in Australia, the actual disposition of the funds by the Iraqi government is impossible to determine - dollars are fungible, and the proceeds of the kickbacks simply found their way into the national treasury. It is, however, clear that this was directly contrary to the intent of the OFF programme, and represented a breach of both international and national standards.