The Royal commission has accepted this explanation

For ten months, Terence Rhoderick Hudson Cole, former President of the Australian Supreme Court, has not spared its efforts. It was to identify those responsible for violations in the application of the oil program for food of the United Nations for the Iraq of Saddam Hussein. This plan, between December 1996 and early in 2003, was intended to contain the negative consequences on the Iraqi population of the embargo imposed by the United Nations.

Australian investigators examined the position of two national leaders in natural resources, AWB, State monopoly of the exports of grain (14 of the international trade of wheat), and BHP Billiton, world number one of mineral resources. Adopting conclusions essentially United Nations ("Les Echos" December 2, 2005 and February 1, 2006), the commission chaired by Terence Cole sent the justice the names of 11 leaders of AWB, including former Chairman Trevor Flugge. Two men of the time BHP are on the list: Davidson Kelly (he will leave the company in 2001) and Charles Stott. AWB is accused of paying of the underside of table of Hierarchs of the Baghdad regime for the export of wheat contracts. BHP Billiton had been suspected of having financed (for $ 5 million) in 1996, a cargo of wheat for Iraqi dignitaries.

Internal audit

Conducting its own inquiry, entrusted to members of the Directorate-General appointed by the current Executive Chairman, Chip Goodyear, BHP Billiton believes that the results of internal audit conducted with the assistance of the consulting Deloitte group and Freehills lawyers contradict not the conclusions of Terence Cole. The mining group said that BHP (head prior to the merger with Billiton holding) and its subsidiary BHP Petroleum "met the Australian legislation and UN sanctions."

About suspicious cargo of wheat which was the subject of the attentions of the investigators, the Group denied have funded it for oil concessions in Iraq. "It was a gift to the Iraq approved by the United Nations by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and international trade", insists the mining company. The Royal commission has accepted this explanation. BHP Billiton is nevertheless committed to further strengthen its governance donations and alliances. Different is the judgment issued by Terence Cole on the behavior of AWB.

Target of severe accusations on the part of the Royal commission, its President in title, Brendan Stewart said "deeply regret the actions of his company in Iraq in the period 1999-2004". The group, which exports cereals in more than 50 countries about 5 billion dollars per year, is going to have very strict rules of governance. Has proposed to the shareholders of separating the activity of the company into two entities, AWB International and AWB Limited, one of agricultural activities and their funding, the other focusing on the marketing of grain. In addition, the Australian Government has very quickly put an end to the monopoly on exports of cereals. Listed since the end of January 2001, the action of AWB plunged by 55 since January 16, the start date of the work of the Royal commission.