Report: The country stealing itself .. shocking information about corruption in Iraq

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[size=52]Report: The country stealing itself .. shocking information about corruption in Iraq[/size]

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[size=45]A press report stated that financial corruption, which is managed by parties and militias in Iraq, generates astronomical financial returns for the parties to power for many years, at the expense of the poor people and institutions that began to crack and collapse.[/size]
[size=45]In 2017, about two hundred veterans and families of American soldiers who were injured or killed in Iraq filed a lawsuit accusing five major American drug companies of dealing with Iraqi militias classified on the US terrorist list for its role in targeting American soldiers during the first years of the war in Iraq.[/size]
[size=45]According to a report by the American “Al-Hurra” channel, the lawsuit indicates that American pharmaceutical companies entered into contracts with the Iraqi Ministry of Health hundreds of millions of dollars, and also paid commissions and bribes to followers of Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in order to obtain these contracts, despite knowing that his militia was responsible for many of the Terrorist crimes in Iraq.[/size]
[size=45]In this context, attorney Ryan Sparaceno says that the defense provided the court with documents on the commissions that were provided in the form of cash bribes in order to win contracts at the Ministry of Health when it was controlled by terrorists.[/size]
[size=45]The defense showed to the court all transactions that substantiate the truth of those deals, which were organized in a way that makes it easier for terrorists to transfer and resell the drugs they obtain on the booming black market in Iraq, he adds.[/size]
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[size=45]Al-Sadr's followers, along with political partners, have controlled the contracts and budgets of the Iraqi Ministry of Health since 2004, according to the former head of the Iraqi Integrity Commission, Radhi al-Radhi.[/size]
[size=45]Radi indicates that ministers who have some integrity were unable to continue, because the inspector general and general managers were agreed to share commissions, so that they were organizing contracts as appropriate to their interests.[/size]
[size=45]And they were hiding this from the supervisory authorities at a time when the Office of Financial Supervision was not auditing until the end of the year, after the contracts had been signed and its money had been spent, according to Radi.[/size]
[size=45]Armed mafias[/size]
[size=45]Similar to the work of armed mafias, the Ministry of Health witnessed the disappearance of two of its senior employees, and they were never found.[/size]
[size=45]A member of the Mahdi Army militia, called the Governor of Zamili, was arrested on that day, and was subsequently released during the term of former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, to transform Zamili from an armed militia leader accused of murdering senior state officials to a deputy in the Iraqi parliament.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Radi asserts that the change in the Ministry of Health was limited to the ministers and some officials, without affecting the structure of the ministry, and therefore we see that the drug factories were not rebuilt, so that the beneficiaries continue to import, and the import is subject to sharing of commissions and when the import declined a little they started creating new things for new contracts.[/size]
[size=45]This file refers us to important documents that were disclosed by the Iraqi parliamentarian Jawad al-Musawi in August 2019, and the documents talk about suspicions of corruption in the Iraqi Ministry of Health and in the contracts overseen by the Kimadia company concerned with importing medicines into Iraq.[/size]
[size=45]The economist, Salam Smeisim, indicates that the Ministry of Health is witnessing a resignation between the various parties to share sensitive sites, because it is linked to drug deals and sale.[/size]
[size=45]She adds that the marketing of medicines in the Ministry of Health is the main outlet for the corruption of the ministry and the corruption of a very dangerous file in Iraq, which is the medicine file.[/size]
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[size=45]It states that Kimadia Company deals with companies to import and distribute medicines in Iraq, they import and have allocations for import, especially for cancer and incurable diseases related to radiation and expensive medicines.[/size]
[size=45]The government is charged with securing financial resources for imports, by allocating part of the budget, but in reality, medicines are not available, she added.[/size]
[size=45]Representative Jawad al-Musawi, a physician from the slums of Sadr City and a member of the Sadroun bloc of the Sadrist movement, revealed differences in the prices of imported medicines.[/size]
[size=45]He said, in a telephone conversation with the American channel, that about 90 percent of the deals to purchase medicines under the chemical company Kimadia are tainted by corruption.[/size]
[size=45]Instead of investigating the documents and information he presented under the parliament dome and through the media, the Sadrist movement, after one month, referred it to a disciplinary party committee and its membership was then frozen within the parliamentary bloc.[/size]
[size=45]As for Smeism, she confirms that there is a big question mark regarding the fate of successive government allocations to the health sector, and its relationship to financing and pharmaceutical companies issues.[/size]
[size=45]The country that steals itself[/size]
[size=45]“The country that steals itself ...” is a summary of what former head of the Integrity Commission, Musa Faraj, said about corruption in Iraq.[/size]
[size=45]And he stresses that corruption is linked to senior statesmen, and it is not limited to embezzling the state's money, but also deliberately dispersing it through spending it on all that is failed, deceived, and corrupt.[/size]
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[size=45]Corruption in Iraq often leads to the death of large numbers of the population, because it branched out in aspects related to the circumstances of the daily life of the population, according to Faraj.[/size]
[size=45]Smeism goes back to saying, “If we remembered at the unfair siege, the United Nations excluded us from a specific issue, which is oil for food and medicine. .[/size]
[size=45]Followers of the Iraqi economic and financial file believe that successive Iraqi governments have sought, gradually and systematically, to destroy all pillars of the Iraqi economic, military, educational and health pillars.[/size]
[size=45]This may not seem logical at all, but the numbers, statistics, documents, facts and data on the ground demonstrate this greatly.[/size]
[size=45]Smeism pointed out that during these years the most prominent phenomenon that occurred in Iraq is the elimination of every Iraqi production process, "I mean, it goes beyond the process to burning factories and destroying them ...".[/size]
[size=45]The eastern neighbor[/size]
[size=45]And she asks, “Who poisoned the fish, for example, why do we wake up in the morning to the news of burning tomato crops in the Zubair region, or a virus that is deliberately thrown on the farms for the purpose of destroying them. Why are the farms and gardens of Diyala and others burned, I was writing and still reporting on the systematic and organized economic crime, the Iraqi economy is subject to such destruction .. This coincides with the import of meat, chicken and fish from the eastern neighbor (Iran), this link is the biggest evidence that this issue is not A transient or regular issue, but rather a systematic, planned and organized issue.[/size]
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[size=45]The significant decline in Iraq's industrial capabilities and in the aspects of energy saving and neglecting basic infrastructure has opened a wide door for Iran to develop its industrial and construction companies in an unprecedented manner.[/size]
[size=45]It also contributed to Iran's entry as a primary partner in the Iraqi market with financial returns of about thirty billion dollars annually, an amount it earns from exporting its products to Iraq and from energy supplies and construction and investment contracts that it acquires through facilities and exceptions provided by Iraq.[/size]
[size=45]Smeism asserts that the material sector of the Iraqi economy has retreated a lot and this has affected making the Iraqi economy an rentier and exposed economy, meaning that it is rentier, that is, it depends on one thing which is oil, and that it is exposed, meaning that it covers all its needs through import and then it is exposed to external economies. .[/size]
[size=45]As for the financial sector, Iranian and Iraqi reports indicate a significant decline in the Iraqi share of the Iraqi financial sector, as Iran now has about 11 banks operating in Iraq independently.[/size]
[size=45]Iranian banks also bought a share of six other Iraqi banks, and the total money for the Iranians in those banks amounted to more than seventy billion dollars, which reflects an almost absolute Iranian domination of the Iraqi economy.[/size]
[size=45]Corruption in the production sectors[/size]
[size=45]Corruption in the Iraqi production sectors, especially in the ministries of industry, electricity, oil, construction, housing and municipalities, has resulted in the depletion of the Iraqi state’s resources and the destruction of its economy and basic infrastructure.[/size]
[size=45]The government of the resigned prime minister, Adel Abdul Mahdi, estimated corruption in 9,000 government projects, some of them imaginary, at about three hundred billion US dollars.[/size]
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[size=45]In this regard, Abdul-Mahdi says: “For example, oil smuggling, real estate smuggling, money smuggling, smuggling and border crossings, customs, gold and trade and smuggling it, prisons and detention centers, all of these are corruption, all these files have corruption.”[/size]
[size=45]The looting of the Iraqi state resources is carried out through various methods and procedures, some of which are outside the framework of the law, such as smuggling of crude oil and petroleum products, or through direct theft operations, such as the theft of oil refinery equipment in Baiji.[/size]
[size=45]The former head of the Iraqi Integrity Commission says, "Corruption was an individual act, but later it became apparent. In the beginnings of the Integrity Commission, we had about 2,700 lawsuits of corruption, which we estimated at approximately 17 billion Iraqi dinars (the equivalent of about 15 million dollars). Where are we now? Now the whole country is mired in corruption. ”[/size]
[size=45]Parties and militias share the financial resources of ministries and government institutions through what are known as economic bodies. The Economic Authority is the authority authorized to spend expenditures and allocations and conclude contracts in government institutions, from the major contracts in the Ministry of Oil to the contract of the smallest cleaning company in an official department.[/size]
[size=45]These contracts and expenditures are not subject to financial and judicial oversight bodies because parties and militias are above the rule of law, and this is what happened to two of the Ministry of Health inspectors when they asked to review the contract for a cleaning company affiliated with the Al-Asaib militia, to turn into defendants facing a corruption case.[/size]
[size=45]These companies, and even some banks and money transfer companies, are in fact the fronts of political parties, and therefore they are the strong arm of the economic committees of the parties because it allows them to control tenders and contracting ...[/size]
[size=45]And she explains, "I mean, for example, we note infrastructure contracts, specifically sewage and paving these roads that are always taken by certain companies linked to political parties and they are the port through which the allocations are entered. I mean, we assume that the allocation is 400 million dollars, it takes this and accomplishes the work for 20 million dollars - if we Lucky to do the job - and the rest goes into their pockets. ”[/size]
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[size=45]As for the other methods used by the parties and militias to plunder the resources of the Iraqi state, they are carried out through legal frameworks, including partnership contracts concluded with public sector companies.[/size]
[size=45]One example of this is the partnership contract signed by an unknown company called Al Shabab with the General Company for Steel Industries of the Iraqi Ministry of Industry.[/size]
[size=45]The documents related to this case show that the Al-Shaboub Company, to its owner, Bahaa Alaa Abdul Razzaq Al-Jourani, sent a written request to the Minister of Industry in December 2018, to conclude a partnership contract with the General Company for Steel Industries.[/size]
[size=45]The Minister referred the request to the aforementioned public company about two months later, with the approval and invitation to complete the contracting procedures within one week only.[/size]
[size=45]The contract of participation relates to the development and production of electric power transmission poles and towers. Its duration is twenty-five years. Accordingly, the Al-Shaboub Company gets ninety percent of the profits, compared to only ten percent for the state.[/size]
[size=45]"The first rules to be observed are transparency and governance," says Sumaisem, "and the most important thing is to prevent conflicts of interest." No one is held accountable for conflicts of interest in Iraq. The members of the Securities Commission, for example, are those who govern and control the market. A person is a member of the board of directors of five companies and he himself is a member of a securities commission, how is that? He controls stock prices, sells stocks to people outside of Iraq, his deals do not go through money laundering or terrorist financing agencies and therefore the Iraqi public funds become permissible, this issue when we report, we will be shocked by a strong cartel because they are mafias that govern each other.[/size]
[size=45]Bahaa Alaa Abdel-Razzaq[/size]
[size=45]The name of the contractor, Bahaa Alaa Abdul-Razzaq, owner of Al-Shaboub Contracting Company, is related to other government contracts and deals, the most important of which is with the Ministry of Electricity.[/size]
[size=45]The Iraqi parliamentarian, Uday Awad, accuses him of paying commissions and bribes to other members of the Iraqi parliament, to prevent any parliamentary questioning of his suspicious activities.[/size]
[size=45]Awad says that “some of the measures taken by Bahaa Alaa in 2013 hampered the process of interrogating the Minister of Electricity at the time, Abdul Karim Aftan, by buying accounts of some representatives explicitly, and I have evidence of that.[/size]
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[size=45]The contractor, Bahaa Alaa Abdul-Razzaq, owns an apartment in the Solna district of the Swedish capital, Stockholm, and also uses it as the headquarters of a company registered in Sweden under the name International Communications and Energy Technology.[/size]
[size=45]This leaves a question mark about the way in which he obtained multiple government contracts with the Ministry of Industry and Electricity.[/size]
[size=45]Members of the Iraqi parliament say that Bahaa Alaa Abdul-Razzaq represents a commercial front for influential politicians in the Iraqi state, and the facilities that he obtains within public administrations are part of the distribution of financial shares between political parties and the militias associated with them.[/size]
[size=45]Awad asserts that there are "some mafias that try to defend some ministers in a way that money is presented to MPs, and this is what happened in the second parliamentary session and has not happened yet in the current session."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Hurra said in its report that Bahaa Alaa Abdel-Razzaq denied, in a telephone call, all these accusations, and said that his work is subject to the laws in force.[/size]
[size=45]Abdul-Razzaq said: “25 years the state will receive profits. You must calculate the profits. In return, I did not set the terms of the contract but rather the state did so, and they are conditions that are consistent with the law. The formula, since 2006 and 2007, and the state takes in participation contracts only 10 percent of the profits. ”[/size]
[size=45]But Abdul-Razzaq's words contradict the summary of the administrative investigation conducted by the Office of the Inspector General, which indicated fundamental violations related to the basic procedures of the contract terms, including his lack of commitment to provide all the legal requirements that he set for the controls and the absence of a declaration regarding the opportunity to participate allowing other companies to compete for the said partnership contract.[/size]
[size=45]Commenting on that, Abdel-Razzaq says: “This issue is not within the purview of the media. There are monitoring bodies that deal with corruption issues. If the media intervenes, we consider it blackmail. This is my advice to you. The Tigris channel tried before you to interfere with the matter in order to get some money. I called you.” Because your channel is respected, upscale and shiny, and does not interfere in such matters, and I know what the Al Hurra channel means, and I know who works on it, so on this basis I advise you not to interfere in this issue.[/size]
[size=45]The judge and legal expert, Ali Al-Tamimi, confirmed, in return, that the approval of the minister or the board of directors of public companies to regulate similar partnership contracts is not sufficient, but that the role of the contract audit committees in legal and financial terms is the basis upon which to preserve public money.[/size]
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[size=45]Lawyer Ali al-Tamimi, a legal and judicial expert, says: “When such contracts are concluded and every contract important to the company because it relates to the public right, a copy is given to the department of the inspector general. No. 49 of 2017, of course the Prosecutor reviews all these conditions, and if the Prosecutor finds that there is a violation of the law and a legal violation, he will form an investigative committee for this matter. ”[/size]
[size=45]The investigative committee formed to review the terms of the Al-Shabob Company’s contract with the General Steel Industries Company concluded that a set of grave breaches were committed, and recommended that behavioral warnings be issued to government employees who agreed to pass the partnership contract, which is an explicit legal condemnation that requires judicial action, according to legal expert Ali Al-Tamimi.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Tamimi explains that in the event that this contract strikes what is called the civil law “obscene injustice” any harm to the public interest and the state as stipulated in Articles 124 to 142 of the Civil Law, and here when the invitation is held in the Court of First Instance against these contracts the Court of First Instance nullifies the contract on its own Article 141 of the Civil Code also says that it relates to the general right ... and any party has the right to go to court because it relates to the public right and submits a complaint.[/size]
[size=45]The international rankings that consider Iraq among the most corrupt countries in the world were not arbitrarily placed, and government projects and the accompanying insane waste of public money came out of the vacuum or nothing.[/size]
[size=45]All of the reasons and premises are related to what the economist Sumaism and other Iraqi economics and law cadres describe as systematic and organized destruction operations supervised by corrupt parties and armed militias run by Iran.[/size]
[size=45]The story of corruption in Iraq, a long history of wasting state funds on idle projects and lost services, and the role of parties and militias in exploiting their influence within the authority to achieve huge financial returns. The size of thefts in Iraq has doubled, after the strength of Iranian-backed armed militias has doubled.[/size]


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