Northern Iraq is in the claws of corruption

15 April 2009, Wednesday

It has become known that in 2008, the Central Iraqi Government impeached around 350 civil servants charged with corruption, and of the mentioned individuals, 90 were found guilty and imprisoned. In Iraq, "passport forgery and facilitation provided for forgers" foreground as the most widespread corruption crime. Also, it is reported that the Iraqi Council of Ethics, which has been working in Kirkuk since January, discovered 2560 forged ration cards last month. It is also said that most of those forged ration cards are belong to the Kurds and were prepared by the Regional Administration in north.

On the other hand, the Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-MALIKI issued a circular, which orders the general directors and above-ranked civil servants in Iraq renovate their affidavits of means by the end of March 2009 in order to counter the corruption. According to the received information, the great majority of the Kurdish rulers residing in Kirkuk have started to transfer the properties they have gained from corruption and irregularities to the countries, such as Syria, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is claimed that also the Mayor of Kirkuk, Jamal Shukur Amin, smuggled a sum of four million dollar to a bank in Dubai in the name of a family member. As known, In December last year, the Director of the Kurdish Branch in the Educational Directorate of Kirkuk, Yousuf Said, was taken into custody on the ground that he had been involved in corruption.

Meanwhile, it was found interesting that some Kurdish executives in Kirkuk about whom there were corruption allegations were killed in an armed attack. In February, the assassinations of the Deputy Director of the Center for The Distribution of Ration Cards in Kirkuk, Hiwa Jalil Fattah from the KDP, and a PUK member contractor who was given infrastructure bids in Hay Military District have led to some rumors. It is reported that the mentioned individuals were liquidated by their own party members in order to gloze over the corruption they got involved.

Mamdoh AL-TAİ
Kerkuk.net
http://www.kerkuk.net/haberler/koseyazisi.aspx?dil=2057&metin=2009041510