Iraq has set up a new system to approve wheat and other imports to ensure its massive food import scheme does not again fall prey to corruption scandals like the one that cost the trade minister his job.

Under the new system, a committee in the Trade Ministry, which includes the state Grain Board and another agency that imports sugar, tea and other food, and a committee reporting directly to the cabinet must both approve food purchases following competitive tenders, the acting Trade Minister said.

'Things are different now. There are no individual decisions anymore,' Safaaeddine al-Safi told Reuters in an interview.

In the previous system food purchases, which can add up to tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, were approved by either the trade minister alone or, for bigger deals, the cabinet.

Safi was appointed earlier this year after former Trade Minister Abdul Falah al-Sudany resigned in a corruption scandal involving alleged kickbacks or fraud in sugar and other imports.

Sudany was detained while trying to leave Iraq in May and later released on bail. At least one of his brothers, a top ministry official, was arrested. All have denied any wrongdoing.

To some, prosecution of senior officials and Sudany's resignation were a breakthrough in combating Iraqi government corruption that has run rampant in the bloody and chaotic years since the US-led invasion in 2003.

To the more cynical, it gave a mere appearance of action.

The scandal has quickly faded from public view, and officials are reluctant to comment about the charges against Sudany and other officials. The former Grain Board director was cleared of charges and has returned to the agency.

But corruption is sure to be a priority issue for Iraqis ahead of national elections in January.

The scandal was also of interest to the world's biggest food companies, many of which sell wheat or other grains to a food rations programme that was worth $5 billion in 2008.

Iraq is a top global wheat importer and regularly buys from US, Australian, Canadian and other origins.

The scandal was not the first stain on Iraq's food import scheme, found to have been involved in a kickback scandal involving Australia's then-monopoly wheat exporter during the United Nations oil-for-food program under Saddam Hussein.

As violence ebbs, Iraq is trying to revive an oil-centric economy and moribund farm sector, but officials acknowledge it will rely on food imports for the foreseeable future.

Iraq now imports about 3 million tonnes of wheat a year, the lion's share of its annual consumption of about 4.5 million tonnes. Its import share of rice is even larger -- up to 80 percent of its 1 million tonne annual consumption is imported. – Reuters