Paul Ingleby, the former Chief Financial Officer of the Australian Wheat Board (AWB), has admitted to breaching his duties as on officer surrounding the Oil-for-Food Programme.

 

The Supreme Court of victoria heard from Mr Ingleby, where he acknowledged he failed to exercise his powers and discharge his duties as an officer, and that he:

  • knew that AWB’s trade with Iraq was conducted under the OFFP which prohibited direct payments to the Iraqi Government;
  • knew that payments from a UN escrow account to AWB in respect of contracts for the supply of wheat to Iraq could only be made for the purpose of the OFFP;
  • co-authorised payments to Alia for Transportation, a Jordanian trucking company, in respect of inland transportation fees payable for contracts for sale of wheat to Iraq;
  • had information available to him to raise questions as to the legitimacy of the inland transportation fees and to suggest that they were ultimately being paid to the Iraqi Government and were recovered by AWB from the UN escrow account; and
  • took no steps to ascertain whether or not the inland transport fees were ultimately being paid to the government of Iraq.

 

The Court also heard a joint submission made by ASIC and Mr Ingleby that the appropriate penalty for the admitted contravention ought to be a pecuniary penalty of $40,000 and that Mr Ingleby be disqualified from managing corporations for a period of 15 months.