schnitz - you'll have a laugh here!!!!

AWB to ask for director pay rise
Caroline Overington
January 14, 2006
THE directors of Australia's monopoly wheat exporter, who already share more than $1million a year in fees, will ask shareholders to grant them a substantial pay rise before the federal Government's inquiry into the Iraq wheat sales scandal hands down its findings.

The directors have brought forward this year's annual general meeting from its usual date in early March, to February 23.

The decision ensures the meeting - where shareholders will vote on the pay rise for directors - will be held before commissioner Terence Cole hands down his report on the inquiry into claims that AWB funnelled $290million in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime under the UN oil-for-food program.

Mr Cole's inquiry is set to begin on Monday, although The Weekend Australian understands that several witnesses, who want to remain anonymous, have already been interviewed in private. Mr Cole's report is due on March 31.

A spokesman for AWB, Peter McBride, said the AGM had been brought forward "because of the Commonwealth Games". He said the Games - to be held in Melbourne from March 15 to 26 - may cause shortages of hotel rooms and venues.









Mr McBride did not say how much extra remuneration AWB directors would seek - "but yes, they will be seeking an increase".

Federal MP Wilson Tuckey condemned the move. "Oh, please. The idea that you have to move the meeting because of the Commonwealth Games - it's ridiculous," he said. "So everything is going to stop because the Games are on?"

Mr Tuckey said the company should wait for the Cole inquiry to end "because that's when people will be able to ask questions at the AGM".

AWB chairman Brendan Stewart receives $203,293 a year in fees and superannuation. Chief executive Andrew Lindberg, who is third in the list of witnesses to be called to the Cole inquiry, receives $783,293 in salary and $105,159 in superannuation. Other directors receive an average of $80,000 a year in fees.

Mr Tuckey said directors on the Wheat Export Authority, the government body that monitors wheat sales, received $30,000.

AWB is accused of propping up Saddam's regime in Iraq by paying more than $290 million in kickbacks, which were funnelled through a Jordanian trucking company called Alia.

AWB admits making the payments but insists it thought Alia was a legitimate company and not a front for Saddam.

The Weekend Australian understands that former employees of AWB have contacted the Cole inquiry, offering to testify if they can remain anonymous.

Investigators have taken statements from these former employees, some of whom flew to Sydney from other states for the private meetings.

The Cole inquiry has also received thousands of previously confidential documents from the UN's own inquiry into the oil-for-food program, headed by former US central banker Paul Volcker. The Volcker report said AWB was the biggest single provider of kickbacks to Saddam's regime.

Material from the Volcker report may become public when the inquiry gets under way, or as part of Mr Cole's final report.

The first witness on Monday will be Murray Rogers, who resigned as AWB chief executive in 2000. He will be followed by former chairman Trevor Flugge, who had extensive dealings with Saddam's regime, including making a dash to Baghdad in 2002 to secure precious wheat contracts ahead of the US-led war. The third witness will be Mr Lindberg.

The inquiry aims to establish whether officials or employees of AWB and two other companies that dealt with Saddam broke any laws.