SYDNEY, March 23: The head of the UN’s probe into illegal kickbacks paid to Iraq under the oil-for-food programme found the Australian government initially uncooperative and reticent to provide information, an inquiry heard on Thursday.

The Australian panel examining the discredited programme was also told that Foreign Minister Alexander Downer had at first prevented the UN from interviewing government officials over the scandal.

The UN was investigating payments made to Saddam Hussein’s regime under the humanitarian programme, including those by Australia’s monopoly wheat exporter, AWB.

A government report submitted to the inquiry on Thursday noted that the head of the UN probe, former US Treasury Secretary Paul Volcker, was concerned that the Australian government had not cooperated fully with it.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) report said that Volcker had told Australia’s ambassador to the United Nations, John Dauth, that the government ‘was not being sufficiently cooperative’.

Volcker described Canberra’s approach as ‘beyond reticent, even forbidding’, it said.

“Volcker strongly indicated in the meeting (with Dauth) that it would be in the government’s and AWB’s best interests to cooperate with the (UN inquiry),” it said.

“Volcker also indicated that he had strong evidence AWB had paid kickbacks to the Saddam regime.”

The report said that following the conversation, Downer and Trade Minister Mark Vaile urged AWB chairman Brendan Stewart to cooperate with the UN inquiry.

Downer also agreed to provide the UN with access to government documents and officials after earlier attempting to limit the world body’s access.

The Volcker inquiry later found that AWB, the biggest provider of food aid under the programme, had paid 220 million US dollars to the Iraqi government.

In a statement released on Thursday, Downer said that he initially agreed to provide only unclassified material and written submissions from officials to the Volcker inquiry.

“The department did not believe we should provide classified material as this would be accessible to foreign interests and be insufficiently protected in terms of Australia’s national security interests,” he said.

—AFP