Movement to control thousands of state real estate awarded at low prices

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[size=52]Movement to control thousands of state real estate awarded at low prices[/size]

[size=45]After more than nine years of the Iraqi parliament’s legislation of the amended Law No. 21 of 2013 on the sale and lease of state funds, which allowed influential people in the political class and parties to seize state real estate for many years in a corruption-like manner, the Federal Court issued a ruling on February 20, 2022, ruling The nullification of Article 25 of the law after it became a source of unlawful acquisition of state-owned real estate, the court said.[/size]
[size=45]The court said in a statement, that it “has decided, by virtue of its decision No. (213 / Federal / 2021) on 9/2/2022, to rule unconstitutional and to cancel Article 25 / third in the original law, which after the amendment became bearing the number (24 / third) of Law No. 21 of 2013 on Sale and Lease of State Funds.[/size]
[size=45]And that article stipulates, “The competent municipality, after the approval of the Minister of Municipalities and Public Works, and the Municipality of Baghdad, may sell the lands allocated for housing at a real price and according to the prevailing prices for similar and neighboring ones, estimated by the assessment committee stipulated in this law and without a public auction to Iraqis who do not own them, their spouses or their minor children. A house, apartment, or residential land on the basis of independence, and they have not obtained a housing unit or a residential plot of land from the state or housing cooperative societies.[/size]
[size=45]Database[/size]
[size=45]Political parties and other parties have seized residential apartments, houses, commercial buildings, agricultural and industrial lands, as well as presidential palaces belonging to the state since the fall of the previous regime in 2003, by renting them with cheap money or buying some of them for cheap amounts that do not reach 10% of the real property price, and without displaying them. In a public auction or advertising by the state for sale, which is considered by the former member of the Finance Committee and the current Member of Parliament, Jamal Kougar, as one of the “most prominent corruption files in the country.”[/size]
[size=45]At a time when Cougar believes that the Federal Court’s decision will contribute to fighting corruption in the real estate file and saving thousands of real estate from the dominance of parties and some armed factions, he confirms to (Al-Mada), that “the State Real Estate Department of the Ministry of Finance does not have an integrated database on those properties that are affiliated with the Ministry of Finance.” It was acquired by parties and armed groups at a cheap price, and its ownership was transferred through political deals from public property to personal property.[/size]
[size=45]He added that the article "the canceled decision of the State Funds Law, pursuant to the court's decision, granted influential parties, parties and economic bodies the right to acquire thousands of real estate, including nearly 6,000 properties in the capital, Baghdad alone," noting that "corruption rates in the country have reached high levels with Some of the corrupt have turned into big mafias that it is difficult for the government to control them.”[/size]
[size=45]On the third of November 2020, the Minister of Finance decided, according to an official document, to authorize the Director General of the State Real Estate Department, the powers to sell movable and immovable state funds without publishing in the newspapers or announcing a public auction with the estimated value and the authority to approve the assessment decision.[/size]
[size=45]According to this document, the Minister of Finance, Ali Abdul-Amir Allawi, director of the State Real Estate Department, which regulates the work of state real estate and registered in the name of the Ministry of Finance in terms of sale and rent, was granted the absolute authority to dispose of nearly 600,000 government properties in Baghdad and other provinces, which are government buildings and lands with Great money value.[/size]
[size=45]The Integrity Commission estimated, in early December 2021, the number of properties illegally under the authority of various personalities and parties, in Baghdad and the governorates except for the Kurdistan region, at (31378) properties. Nineveh governorate came at the top of the list, as the number of properties exceeded (8585). ) real estate, followed by Basra with (6,194), then Kirkuk with 3653 real estate.[/size]
[size=45]The authority noted its procedures for recovering these real estate, in an official statement, saying that “the authority worked under the direct guidance of the authority’s presidency, represented by Judge Alaa Jawad al-Saadi, by giving the issue of state real estate the importance it deserves, and a program was prepared that included (property number and address, governorate, property ownership). real estate sex, area, bypassing party, estimated value, actions taken against the bypassing party), and this program was circulated to the commission’s investigation directorates and offices in Baghdad and the governorates; To have it approved by them, fill in its fields, and send it back to the Investigation Department.”[/size]
[size=45]corruption suspicions[/size]
[size=45]The file of these properties formed a legal knot around which suspicions of corruption, manipulation and falsification of their official title deeds as well as their prices and the way they were sold by political parties and influential personalities revolved, according to anti-corruption activist Saeed Moussa.[/size]
[size=45]Moussa told Al-Mada that "weak government measures were the reason behind the failure to implement the law and take deterrent steps against violators," stressing that "the solution to these problems in the real estate file lies with the ministries of justice and finance."[/size]
[size=45]Moussa confirms the view of the current member of the House of Representatives, Jamal Cougar, regarding “the State Real Estate Department not having a clear database of these properties and the entities that seized them.”[/size]
[size=45]Regarding the nature of the ownership of these properties, Moussa explains, “Some of the properties that were acquired belong to the Ministry of Finance and others belong to the Ministry of Housing and Municipalities, as well as some of them belong to the governorates and the Municipality of Baghdad,” revealing that “there are agricultural lands on the outskirts of Baghdad that were seized by influential parties and then the By razing them and transforming them into residential neighborhoods without legal authority.”[/size]
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