The following article was published by Reidar Visser, an historian of Iraq educated at the University of Oxford and currently based at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. It is reproduced here with the author’s permission. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. […]
The Iraqi parliament took back control over the parliamentary Commission of Integrity from the Council of Ministers on Saturday. The majority of the members of parliament voted for the new committee law, despite strong opposition form the State of Law Coalition of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. "The parliament can now assign the new head of […]
Iraq has recovered $116 million [139 billion Iraqi dinars] from bank accounts in France belonging to an official from ex-dictator Saddam Hussein's regime, the country's Commission on Integrity said in a statement. The Commission said the funds comprised $106 million deposited in 'French Arab Union Bank' (UBAF), a French-registered bank whose shareholders include 19 Arab […]
Iraq's former anti-corruption chief slammed its leaders Monday, describing graft as "part of the struggle for power", according to a report from AFP. Rahim Hassan al-Uqailee [Judge Rahim al-Akili; al-Ugeily], who last week stepped down as head of Iraq's Integrity Commission, sharply criticised interference in his inquiries, and said he had lost political support for […]
Hussein al-Shahristani (pictured), Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister, will be summoned to parliament after the Eid al-Fitr holiday to answer questions about two fraudulent ministry of electricity contracts worth more than $1.7 billion, according to AKnews. A member of the parliamentary commission set up to investigate the case, Uday Awwad, told the agency that MPs signatures have […]
The Deputy Chairman of Iraq’s Integrity Commission had demanded Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki sack the Chairman of the Haj (Pilgrimage) Commission, Mohammed Taqi al-Moula, following charges of corruption. “There are documents and dossiers, being studied since over one month by the Integrity Commission, that had agreed that the said official was involved in corruption,” Ahmed […]
In Iraq almost all official records are kept on paper. So what better way to kill the paper trail that corruption investigators are tracking, than burn the evidence? A rash of fires inside government buildings has led to calls for further investigation. A recent rash of small fires inside the offices of various ministries and […]
General Inspector’s office at Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs said 190 employees, including four directors, will be investigated on charges of financial corruption. The Integrity Commission will investigate the allegations and if they find sufficient evidence the employees will be sent to court, General Inspector Hammed al-Zaidi, told AKnews. All are suspected of 'money […]
Iraq’s Integrity Commission announced on Sunday that 479 people convicted of fraud were required to return 1.7 billion Iraqi dinars [$1.4 million] to the State Treasury. “The number of persons, convicted by special courts at the investigation offices in Baghdad and other Iraqi provinces, have reached 479 persons, most of them in Baghdad and Thi-Qar […]
A member of Iraq's Integrity Committee, Aliya Nassif confirmed on Wednesday that the committee is investigating possible financial corruption in a deal by the previous government's Defense Ministry to buy military equipment from Serbia. Nassif told AKnews that the Ministry of Defense in the former government had contracted with Serbia to buy arms for the […]
The commander of Iraq's rapid response force has been arrested on suspicion of corruption. According to a report from Reuters, Brigadier General Numan Dakhil was caught during a sting operation in which he was filmed taking a $50,000 bribe from a contractor. Sabah al-Saedi, a member of the Integrity Committee, said that Brigadier General Numan […]
The Parliamentary Integrity Commission revealed on Sunday the most corrupt government ministries, indicating that they are currently investigating the cases and that more details will follow. Bahaa al-Aaraji, the chairman of the committee told AKnews that the most corrupt ministries are those of health, trade, defense, sports and youth, as well as the Secretariat of […]
