AWB and that damn letter
Australia’s beleaguered sole wheat trader is contemplating a makeover. Concerned about its image problems because of the Cole inquiry into the oil-for-food scandal, AWB’s management is, according to the Australian Financial Review, planning to rename the company Landmark, move along many of its executives and directors, in a bid to help the company’s plummeting share price and ailing fortunes. However, Its image in the past week however has been hit by not so much what it did as what it didn’t do – apologize. Late last year the company drafted a carefully worded statement of contrition that admitted to paying bribes to Iraqi government officials as well as failing to put in place systems that ensure that corruption was allowed to go unchecked. But in a change of tactic, the company decided to NOT release it to the market and went all the way to the federal court to try and stop it from seeing the light of day through the Cole Commission, but to no avail.