The Australian Wheat Scam
About a year or so ago, the rejection of an Australian wheat consignment by Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Supply Corporation (PASSCO) caused on uproar. Designated Pakistani laboratories labelled the samples drawn from the ships delivering the wheat as “unfit for human consumption”. The vehement protest by the Australian Wheat Board (AWB) turned into a major diplomatic problem between the Australian Government and Govt of Pakistan (GOP). Withstanding tremendous pressure to accept the wheat consignment, Director General (DG) PASSCO Maj Gen Fahim Akhtar Khan, was racked over the coals by a full Federal Cabinet meeting presided over by the PM for having the audacity “to create a full fledged diplomatic incident”. He was “encouraged“ to be more cooperative. DG PASSCO stood his ground that he would not accept the consignment in the face of the laboratory report.
Finding him intractable, the Federal Cabinet appointed a high-powered Ministerial Committee headed by Minister of State Dr Ataur Rehman to oversee designated Pakistani laboratories to obtain fresh samples in the presence of representatives of AWB, the findings were the same, GOP had no option but to reject the wheat consignment. AWB then mounted a sophisticated print and electronic media campaign locally and internationally, to defame Pakistan for rejecting the wheat.
AWB is presently being investigated by the Australian authorities for having paid bribes to Saddam Hussain in exchange for lucrative contracts in the UN-mandated oil-for-food program for Iraq. Former AWB export executive, Mark Enron, confirmed in testimony before the Commission investigating the payments that millions of dollars had been illegally paid through a Jordanian transport company disguised as transportation costs. After giving their testimony, AWB Chairman Trevor Flugge and Chief Executive Andrew Lindberg had to resign. What should be of interest to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is that Mark Enron additionally testified that millions of US dollars had been paid to agents in Pakistan over the years, an agent who represented the Americans, AWB’s commercial arch-rival in the wheat trade, was paid part of the money to tip off the Australians about the details of the US bid. US companies wanted the bid opened in the Pakistan Embassy in Washington DC, GOP officials were “persuaded” to open the bid in Islamabad.
The two Pakistani commission agents involved have been code-named in the testimony (to hide actual names), “AA6” working for the Australians, with “AA7” representing the Americans. Enron confirmed AA6 was paid US$ 4 per ton for the million-ton contract, i.e. a cool US$ 4 million, including compensation for AA7 for betraying his American principals. To quote Enron verbatim, “we were able to unload very low-quality, poor-quality wheat at a reasonable price, and therefore, it (Pakistan) was a valuable market”, unquote. If nothing else this is very demeaning. Give credit to the Australians, despite the repercussions to the good name of the country, Australia persisted in exposing corruption reaching even the heart of their government. Is such a thing possible in Pakistan? According to Mark Enron, considering that Pakistan was bankrupt at that time, as part of AA6’s work the agent had to ensure AWB got paid. The period being referred to is probably just at the fag end of the Nawaz Sharif Government or the first years of the Musharraf regime, with the treasury virtually empty. One has a fair idea who AA6 and AA7 are but it is upto the Australians to help Pakistan “register” their names, after all why should it be kept a nuclear secret?
Pakistan was subjected to a lot of adverse propaganda that PASSCO and the Ministerial Committee were corrupt in refusing the Australian wheat. GOP was fully occupied managing damage-control to the reputation of the country. The actual fact was the other way around, AWB was trying to corrupt them to feed our people with wheat fit only for animal consumption. Maj Gen Fahim Akhtar Khan would have been sacked if President Gen Pervez Musharraf had not stepped in to ensure justice was done. As a gesture of his vote of confidence in his honesty and steadfastness, Musharraf subsequently gave Fahim a one-year extension beyond his retirement date in May 2005. In a world where the Pakistan Army is subjected to all sorts of accusations, mostly wrong and scurrilous, score one for the uniform. And to the President for backing him up contrary to sustained political and bureaucratic advice. Fahim is supposed to have said that if in the future wheat consignments were similarly tainted he would not accept them. One may well ask why did the government decide to circumvent PASSCO altogether in the future and start routing consignments through other agencies? Probably because they would not be so obdurate and stubborn as Fahim in not accepting low standard inferior quality wheat?
What does it matter who AA6 and AA7 really are? There is no illegality in getting commissions for commercial transactions, that is a legitimate business transaction. Would NAB be interested in how such influence is used at the core of government? When those honest to their mandate and creed stand their ground in the face of scurrilous propaganda campaign motivated for crass monetary gain, both false and wicked, would any authority give suo moto punishment to those who subjected them to false allegations of impropriety? And what about those in government who gave tacit support to such calumny?
Pakistan has been looted over the years by a cabal of those evil in government, agents on the payroll of foreign governments and the representatives of multi-nationals. The greater crime is how they subvert integrity by the use of the media. Thanks to organizations like Transparency International (and people like Jeremy P. Brooks, Peter Eigen etc) and NAB, those who used to perpetuate corruption without fear have now become the hunted. Take for example the Ministry of Commerce and their barters. With the East European Countries now democratic, can former COMECON countries be approached to retrieve the money that rightfully belongs to Pakistan? AWB’s startling revelations about wheat are simply the tip of the iceberg, one can open a can of worms using this episode as a can opener. Does it really matter who perpetuated the Australian wheat scam that was averted by PASSCO? We should rather go after those because of whom this country reached the verge of economic bankruptcy, only 9/11 and Musharraf’s decisive U-turn rescued us, both from becoming “one giant parking lot” and an economic wasteland
Burrowed deep into the country’s soul, corruption will not go away from the body politic of Pakistan by publishing books and holding “the strategy of seminars on eradicating corruption”. It can only be averted by dishing out exemplary punishment without recourse to “plea bargaining”. The big bucks are still out there in some foreign banks or offshore companies, they need to be targetted, even if it takes years. What NAB needs is a “tutorial” on “private banking” and how illegal funds are safeguarded and protected by the banks who administer them. As the former head of “private banking” of one of the largest financial institutions of the world, who else can give this tutorial in the greater interest of the country he now governs than the Prime Minister of Pakistan Mr Shaukat Aziz himself? In his previous life the PM was performing a legitimate function as a bank executive, but most of those having private accounts stashing illegal wealth. And he has the experience, when the US Senate Committee on “Money Laundering” targetted the concerned bank, he was personally given a mandate by his bank’s Chief to clean up the bank’s act. As the head of our government it must be a priority for him to use his knowledge of “cleaning up” to go after such illegal “private accounts”. This he owes to the people he now deservedly leads in the name of Pakistan!
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