Botterill, Linda Courtenay --- "Circumventing Sanctions Against Iraq in the Oil-for-Food Programme" [2011] ELECD 993; in Graycar, Adam; Smith, G. Russell (eds), "Handbook of Global Research and Practice in Corruption" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Handbook of Global Research and Practice in Corruption

Editor(s): Graycar, Adam; Smith, G. Russell

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849805018

Section: Chapter 6

Section Title: Circumventing Sanctions Against Iraq in the Oil-for-Food Programme

Author(s): Botterill, Linda Courtenay

Number of pages: 16

Extract:

6 Circumventing sanctions against Iraq in
the Oil-for-Food programme
Linda Courtenay Botterill


In her introduction to a recent book on corruption in international business,
Eicher (2009a, p. 2) notes that `not all illegal behaviour is corrupt, and not
all corrupt behaviour is illegal'. There is also a fine distinction between the
unethical and the corrupt. This chapter discusses a case which highlights
this definitional blurring. In 2005, the Australian monopoly grain exporter
AWB Limited was identified in a UN inquiry as the worst offender in cir-
cumventing the very complex Oil-for-Food sanctions regime that had been
put in place against the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein. Cooperation
with Iraq's requests to bypass sanctions was confined to a small group of
company employees who went to considerable lengths to disguise their
activities. The Australian legal system did not consider AWB Limited
to have broken any Australian law, so in this sense the company did not
operate illegally. The events described below became a national scandal and
were largely regarded as unethical. However, the principal actors were argu-
ably not corrupt as there is no evidence they profited personally from their
activities and, until the kickbacks became public, there was no principal­
agent problem as the company was not disadvantaged. When the events
became public though the consequences for AWB Limited were profound.
The revelation of AWB Limited's involvement in sanctions-busting
activities was a major political scandal in Australia and seemed to threaten
to bring ...