Envoy 'present at AWB talks on Tigris'

ONE of the AWB executives likely to face criminal charges over the Iraq kickbacks scandal claims that a senior bureaucrat from the Australian embassy in Jordan was present during a meeting with the Iraqis where the controversial Tigris deal was discussed.

ONE of the AWB executives likely to face criminal charges over the Iraq kickbacks scandal claims that a senior bureaucrat from the Australian embassy in Jordan was present during a meeting with the Iraqis where the controversial Tigris deal was discussed.

Chris Whitwell, who left AWB last month after being informed that an adverse finding was likely to be made against him when the Cole inquiry reported on November 24, has told his lawyers that "Glen Mills" from the embassy in Jordan attended a meeting with the Iraqi Grains Board in October 2002.

"We spoke about two issues," Mr Whitwell says in notes provided to the inquiry. "Tigris, and we tried to get the iron filings incident addressed."

Tigris is the name of a company set up by two former BHP employees in 2000. It was used as a vehicle to extract money from the UN in breach of the oil-for-food program.

The Tigris transaction has been described by the Federal Court as an attempt to "work a trickery" on the UN. The Government says it was never informed about the scam, a claim backed by AWB's former CEO Andrew Lindberg.

The "iron filings" incident involved Iraq's attempt to extract $2million from AWB, ostensibly to clean contaminated wheat. Mr Whitwell's note was taken by lawyers from Minter Ellison in September 2004 and provided to the Cole inquiry last month. It is likely that Mr Whitwell is referring not to "Glen Mills" but to Glenn Miles, who was first secretary at the Australian embassy in Amman until war broke out in Iraq in 2003.

In three statements to the Cole inquiry, Mr Miles says he visited Iraq about 15 times between 2001 and 2003.

He does not specifically mention an October 2002 trip.

Another AWB executive, Daryl Borlase, told the Cole inquiry during public hearings that he discussed Iraq's attempts to rort the oil-for-food program with Mr Miles in 2001.

An email from Mr Borlase to Mr Miles on April 2, 2001, refers to Iraq's attempts to extract "more dollars from the escrow account".

Mr Miles said he believed Mr Borlase was referring, in general terms, to "well publicised attempts by Iraq to seek access to the escrow account".

He denies knowing that AWB was funnelling money to Iraq in the guise of trucking fees.

He was not called to give evidence to the Cole inquiry.

The notes also suggest that Mr Whitwell discussed the bloated prices on AWB's contracts with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade shortly after the war began in March 2003.

He said discussions were "along the lines of DFAT wanting to know whether or not there was anything in the allegations concerning potential overcharging with contracts under the oil-for-food program, and we said no."

"They asked why we agreed to the 10 per cent (reduction on the contract price)."

AWB told DFAT that everybody had agreed to take a price cut, and there was no corruption.