Cole Inquiry Reveals 12k Bundles of Documents Withheld

May 30th, 2006: Australian Wheat Board Document Management compliance questioned as Cole uncovers and alleged $3.3-million kick-back in an Indian deal.

Things go from bad to worse for the AWB and for Australian commercial probity as the Cole Commission not only questions the company's legal right to withhold 12,000 bundles of additional documents.

Although Cole has officially requested federal legislation to empower the commission to discover these bundles, the earliest that this could pass through parliament is two weeks.

As a further stitch in the rapidly tightening AWB shroud, it is also being reported that the Australian Federal Police could be called into the investigate a 1998 deal the company sealed in India. In this case, a further $3.3-million is said to have been used as a 'kick-back'. Apparently the monies were paid into a Cayman Islands account as part of a 2-million tonne export order.

The India Daily is also reporting that, 'Indian investigators also say the wheat was sold at a price of US$142.50 per tonne while the same wheat had been sold to Egypt at US$135 per tonne."

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