Australia Turned Blind Eye to Oil-for-food bribes says Church Report on Corruption

Now a big Church group in Australia agrees with me that government action must be taken to solve corruption. The Uniting Church in Australia just issued a report, From Corruption to Good Governance, given to the newly elected Australian "Rudd" government, that said Australia turned a blind eye to corruption in Iraq and allowed oil-for-food bribes to take place to get business for Australia's wheat industry.

Apparently, Australian fines for such bribes of public officials in other countries are really low, so the report recommended increasing the fines "30-fold".

Favorite Quote:

"It ( the Australian Government ) also failed to take much action as Iraqis were cheated out of billions of dollars of oil revenue by mismanagement and corruption within the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority."

Below are TWO articles - I have not been able to locate a copy of the report yet, but will upload it here when found.
vj
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from Australia's Herald Sun:
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23389172-29277,00.html

AUSTRALIA turned a blind eye to corruption and human rights abuses in Iraq under the US-led occupation, an independent church report says.

The Uniting Church report describes Iraq as a black mark on Australia's mostly good record in combating global corruption.

On top of the AWB oil-for-food bribes paid to the former regime of Saddam Hussein, the document accuses the former coalition government of failing to prevent abuses under the military occupation in which Australia participated.

"The Australian government appears to have largely looked the other way with regard to many human rights abuse in Iraq committed by US-led forces," the report says.

"It also failed to take much action as Iraqis were cheated out of billions of dollars of oil revenue by mismanagement and corruption within the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority."

A US congressional committee concluded that $US12 billion of development money derived from Iraq oil sales went missing under the authority, which was dissolved in 2004.

The Uniting Church report - From Corruption to Good Governance - adds there are no allegations of any corruption relating to Australia's direct aid program to Iraq.

"We have a good record in Australia, perhaps with the blinding exceptions of the Australian Wheat Board scandal and of our involvement with what goes in Iraq and in other parts of the Middle East," Uniting Church president Reverend Gregor Henderson told a launch of the report in Canberra.

"Where there is scant respect for human rights, corruption will flourish."

Report co-author Mark Zimsak said the government still had a chance to redeem itself on the missing Iraq funds.

"Australia could and potentially may in future still make efforts to try and see as much of that money, that part of the money that was stolen through corruption that should be recovered and returned for the benefit of the Iraqi people," Dr Zimsak said.

The report also calls for a 30-fold increase in penalties for Australian companies found guilty of bribing foreign governments and officials.

Such a move would produce fines of more than $300,000.

"Why go to all the trouble of going offshore to find cases of bribery if there's going to be such a minor penalty?" Transparency International executive director Michael Ahrens said of the current fines.

In other recommendations, the church says Australia could do more to address tax havens and evasion.

It could also cancel "odious" debts incurred by loans to dictatorships or corrupt governments.

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Here is the press release from the Uniting Church, which issued the report at:
http://www.journeyonline.com.au/showArticle.php?categoryId=2

Launch of global corruption report
Journey
Updated : Sunday, 16 March 2008 11:34:24 pm

NATIONAL NEWS
Rich nations benefiting from corruption are making the poor even poorer

The first independent report on global corruption since the election of the Rudd Government says Australia’s foreign policy needs to cut off loop-holes in corruption battle.

The Uniting Church will today present the first major independent report on global corruption to the new government of Australia at Parliament House.

The report, From Corruption to Good Governance, challenges the role of wealthy nations and big business in fostering and benefiting from corruption. It calls on the Rudd Government to ensure that penalties for foreign bribery are adequate enough to deter bribery, to guarantee whistleblower protection for people that expose bribery and support greater global efforts to shut down tax havens.

The President of the Uniting Church in Australia, the Rev Gregor Henderson said “corruption is an issue that hampers global efforts to deal with poverty and it needs efforts from all countries. Sadly, there are wealthy countries that continue to facilitate, reward and benefit from corruption in the developing world at the cost of the lives of those in poverty.”

One of the authors of the report and the Director of the Justice and International Mission Unit at the Synod of Victoria and Tasmania, Dr Mark Zirnsak said “there is a real need for a concerted global effort to shut down tax havens, whose secrecy and trust services provide a secure cover for laundering of proceeds of corruption, fraud, the illicit arms trade, other crime and the funding of terrorism.”

Amanda Johnson, National Coordinator of Micah Challenge Australia said “Stable democracies like Australia are blessed because we have tools to tackle corruption and we have strong media and civil society to highlight best practice and expose mistakes. We can encourage our neighbours who are struggling to cope with development pressures and poverty, to set standards of honesty and fairness too.”

Executive Director of Transparency International Australia, Michael Ahrens said “we strongly endorse the key messages of the report and applaud the impressive degree of research that has gone into covering this important topic. This type of research is vital.”

The report was produced by the Justice and International Mission Unit, Synod of Victoria and Tasmania, Uniting Church in Australia, with assistance from TEAR Australia and the Micah Challenge campaign. It is endorsed by Christian World Service of the National Council of Churches in Australia.