SYDNEY, Jan 20: The Australian wheat exporter caught up in the Iraq oil-for-food scandal could potentially also have made illegal payments to agents in Pakistan to ensure contracts, an inquiry heard on Friday.

The commission of inquiry into the AWB (Australian Wheat Board) heard that the company granted legal indemnity to two employees because they were worried that payments made to two agents in Islamabad and Karachi could amount to bribing foreign officials.

The company’s internal documents reveal that the Pakistani agents received unusually high payments — with one apparently paid four million US dollars after extracting 4 US dollars per tonne for a one million tonne shipment of wheat.

An internal audit report noted that the major risk with such large transactions was they could enable the agents to make payments to Pakistani officials.

The report also revealed that one Pakistani agent told AWB officials that “payments of outstanding receivables” from the Pakistan government would not proceed if AWB’s deal with him was terminated.

The two former AWB employees, who cannot be named, insisted on legal indemnity when they left the company.

The audit report noted that one of the employees “stated that if he did not obtain an indemnity he would go to lawyers” in relation to the Pakistan payments.

The release documents for the two employees were signed by AWB chief executive officer Andrew Lindberg.

They contain the clause: “AWB acknowledges that it (by its board and chief executive officer) authorised agency payments during the period 15 Dec 15, 1999 to June 28, 2000 to overseas agents for sales.”

Asked about the Pakistan payments during Friday’s hearing, Lindberg said he did not recall whether he had been advised that the payments were illegal.

“I was advised that agency payments had been made; I acted on the advice I received,” he said.

“I believe that advice was that this release ... didn’t protect them to the extent that they did things that weren’t within the approved policies or were unlawful,” he told the inquiry.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard called for an inquiry into AWB last year after it was named as one 2,200 companies involved in paying kickbacks to the former Iraqi government under the UN oil-for-food programme.

Speaking in Sydney, Mr Howard said that the question of AWB’s monopoly, which allows it to veto which companies can export bulk quantities of wheat, should be examined.

“Well, that is something that should be looked at,” he told reporters.—AFP