News website: Mafias dominate the market for government appointments in Iraq

[size=52]News website: Mafias dominate the market for government appointments in Iraq[/size]

[size=45]Translated by Hamid Ahmed[/size]
[size=45]Her getting a temporary work contract job within the Ministry of Industry and Minerals cost Yasmine, a graduate of the Mechanics Department from the University of Technology, $ 1,000. As for Haidar, at the beginning of 2018 he paid ten times that amount as the cost of getting a job in the Ministry of Oil. The law may criminalize the parties who pay the bribe and those who take it, but watchdog groups and officials acknowledge the laxity of implementing this law.[/size]
[size=45]The criminal charges did nothing to stop the guards of the tempting government job portals from snatching thousands of dollars from young graduates looking for a job. Yasmine and Haider are just two examples from several other alumni who spoke to the National News website, to investigate one aspect of a complex corruption network that made Iraq among the most corrupt countries in the world by placing it at the bottom of the International Transparency Index list in the 160th hierarchy in a list of 180 countries. When paying a bribe, do not expect to be refunded if you do not get what you want.[/size]
[size=45]Yasmine, in her late twenties, graduated from the University of Technology in Baghdad in 2014, struggled for five years in search of a job opportunity, but was eventually forced to pay a bribe to fulfill her dream of getting a job in a ministry.[/size]
[size=45]She says she was employed with 100 other graduates in February 2019. But although she paid for the job, she was told that there was no allocated budget and she was fired immediately after that. “We have all received a promise that our temporary contracts will be transferred to permanent owners within months,” Yasmine said. But on the first day of the job, an influential manager told us by saying: Forget anything called salary. We don't have a budget for you. ”[/size]
[size=45]"They fired me," she added. I followed the person I was communicating with on WhatsApp to get my money back, but he blocked me and prevented me from calling him again. ”[/size]
[size=45]According to the World Bank, the unemployment rate among Iraqi youth stands at 36%, indicating that more than 2.5 million unemployed people in the country need a job opportunity.[/size]
[size=45]Before 2003, with the economic blockade that the country lived through and the closed government policy at that time, the side of economic activity and the provision of commercial projects were weak. As for the successive governments after the US invasion, they did not have economic planning, and worked on the side of the public sector to slacken and to not make room for investments that could provide opportunities for a worker outside the government sector.[/size]
[size=45]For decades, the public sector has been a way for many to get government wages ranging from $ 380 to $ 600 a month. That left Iraq with a public service sector costing the country $ 5 billion a month. Three-quarters of government spending for 2020 was going to pay employees' salaries, a rate that is 400% more than what was spent 15 years ago.[/size]
[size=45]Government officials tasked with preventing bribes have said "pay for a job" methods are difficult to track.[/size]
[size=45]The government itself admits that billions of dollars of public funds have been wasted or disappeared since 2003, while basic infrastructure projects and government services, such as providing clean drinking water, health care, and continuous electricity service without interruptions, have been hampered.[/size]
[size=45]Firas Al-Bayati, a lawyer and human rights activist, says that it is not surprising that many resort to paying bribes in order to get a job.[/size]
[size=45]"I personally dealt with many cases of Iraqis who hold university degrees in the fields of science, law and trade, but they did not have any job opportunity in the public sector, which depends on favoritism and bribes," he added. At a time when officials are supposed to search for employment for those with competencies, skills and degrees from graduates to fill jobs, but in this aspect they seek instead to get the money they can.[/size]
[size=45]There are no official or unofficial figures on those who reported cases of bribes, but there are politicians who have publicly admitted that they took a bribe.[/size]
[size=45]Veteran parliamentarian Mishaan Al-Jubouri, who appeared on a live broadcast on a satellite channel in 2016, said that he took millions in bribes.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Jubouri said in that interview that an uncorrupted political presence in Iraq is rare. He said that he took a bribe and that everyone is corrupt, indicating that he is a member of the Integrity Committee: “When we open cases we close them after receiving bribes. One example is that I took millions of dollars from someone to close a case against him, but I didn't close it. It took him off. ”[/size]
[size=45]After five years had passed since those statements, Al-Jubouri revealed to The National that he definitely did not accept bribes, indicating that his statements in that interview were intended to “create a shock” in a country where corruption has become a “national policy”.[/size]
[size=45]An official in the Integrity Committee, which was formed in 2004 to fight corruption, described the process of paying bribes in exchange for a job as the "most difficult" task to be pursued by the committee, justifying this by saying, "Because a job seeker deals with a mediator outside the ministry."[/size]
[size=45]He went on to say, "Both parties settle their agreement outside the ministry before the mediator follows up on the rest of the matters with one or more officials within those government offices who trust him very much." Then these officials take the names of those who have paid sums from among the names of the list of those who applied for a job.[/size]
[size=45]He explained, "Some political parties, politicians and members of parliament benefit from selling jobs through intermediaries to the extent that political parties keep the balance of jobs they advertise that belong to a specific minister affiliated with them. It's a lucrative business that could bring in hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. "[/size]
[size=45]The victim, Haidar, who paid a $ 10,000 bribe, had obtained a letter of appointment by a mediator bearing the signature of a high-ranking official in the ministry, but as with the victim Yasmine, he lost his job after six months when he was told that he had not passed the deadline of the difficult test.[/size]
[size=45]"They are promoting new graduates," Haider said. They rotate these vacancies for other unemployed university graduates and become victims of this fraud even if we pay huge sums of money. ”[/size]
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