موسى فرج
رئيس هيئة النزاهة في العراق (سابقا)ـ
ـ1 حزيران 2009
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There now exists, thanks to the occupation, rampant corruption in Iraq's government offices, at all levels.
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The above is a a revealing imagined confrontation (in Arabic) with the Iraqi parliament members by Muossa Faraj, a (very recently) head of the Iraqi Integrity Commission. He exposes many of the hitherto unknown corruption charges and cases against the members of the parliament, ministeries and the upper echelons of the government.
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"Police arrested some 120 officials on corruption charges over the course of April and May, the commission said. All this corruption cost the government 250 billion dollars over the last five years (emphasis added), Judge Moussa Faraj, of the CPI, said. In 2006, former minister of electricity Ayham al-Samarrai was sentenced to two years' in prison on the charge that 2 billion dollars earmarked for the reconstruction of Iraq's power network disappeared under his watch. In September 2007, Judge Radhi Hamza (who testified, haltingly, before a US congressional committee back in October 2007) resigned from his post as Iraq's first anti-corruption commissioner, citing political pressure from al-Maliki's government and anonymous death threats".
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"Iraq plans to arrest 1,000 officials for corruption after a scandal which has forced the resignation of the Trade Minister and is threatening the food supply of millions of Iraqis.
Corruption at the Trade Ministry is an important issue in Iraq because the ministry is in charge of the food rationing system on which 60 per cent of Iraqis depend. Officials at the ministry, which spends billions of dollars buying rice, sugar, flour and other items, are notorious among Iraqis for importing food that is unfit for human consumption, for which they charge the state the full international price.
The scandal first erupted in April when police, entering the Trade Ministry in Baghdad to arrest 10 senior officials accused of corruption and embezzlement, were greeted with gunfire by the ministry's own guards. The shoot-out allowed several officials, including two brothers of the Trade Minister, Abdul Falah al-Sudany, time to escape out the back gate.
The political crisis over corruption has escalated after a video surfaced showing Trade Ministry officials at a party, apparently drinking alcohol, cavorting with prostitutes, and deriding the Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki.
The voice of the man shooting the video, widely viewed and sent from phone to phone in Baghdad, is heard shouting to the dancing girls: "You before Maliki". Guests at the party who were captured on the video are said to include one of Mr Sudany's brothers and the ministry's spokesman."
Corruption at the Trade Ministry is an important issue in Iraq because the ministry is in charge of the food rationing system on which 60 per cent of Iraqis depend. Officials at the ministry, which spends billions of dollars buying rice, sugar, flour and other items, are notorious among Iraqis for importing food that is unfit for human consumption, for which they charge the state the full international price.
The scandal first erupted in April when police, entering the Trade Ministry in Baghdad to arrest 10 senior officials accused of corruption and embezzlement, were greeted with gunfire by the ministry's own guards. The shoot-out allowed several officials, including two brothers of the Trade Minister, Abdul Falah al-Sudany, time to escape out the back gate.
The political crisis over corruption has escalated after a video surfaced showing Trade Ministry officials at a party, apparently drinking alcohol, cavorting with prostitutes, and deriding the Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki.
The voice of the man shooting the video, widely viewed and sent from phone to phone in Baghdad, is heard shouting to the dancing girls: "You before Maliki". Guests at the party who were captured on the video are said to include one of Mr Sudany's brothers and the ministry's spokesman."
Iraq faces the mother of all corruption scandals May 29, 2009
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