Al-Sudani pledges to recover the smuggled money from Iraq
Al-Sudani pledges to recover the smuggled money from Iraq
11-2-2022
Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammad Shia Al-Sudani announced that one of his government’s most important priorities is to recover Iraq’s money smuggled abroad. The government’s dealings with the governments of countries is the extent of its cooperation with Iraq in recovering the convicts and the smuggled money, and the diplomatic effort will be consistent with the procedures of the Integrity Commission, to enable Iraq to recover its smuggled money.”
Al-Sudani urged to start “opening the most important files in terms of the amount of embezzled or wasted funds, or those related to stopping important projects whose completion touches the citizen the best services provided to him,” calling for “the formation of a supportive team for the Integrity Commission that takes a legal character, and does not conflict with the powers of The Authority and its assigned tasks, in accordance with its amended Law No. 30 of 2011 in force.
The Iraqi Prime Minister expressed his readiness “to provide all support to the commission, whether at the level of executive procedures or legislative interventions to enact laws that address corruption, and that contribute to closing the outlets of this dangerous scourge.”
Al-Sudani stressed the need to “work to improve Iraq’s ladder in the international corruption perception index,” saying: “We are now in a fateful battle against corruption.” He stressed, “there are no red lines in front of any corruption file linked to a political party or any personality.” And the Iraqi Prime Minister indicated that “the phenomenon of corruption is developing and mutating, as is the case with the (Corona) virus,” calling for “developing methods of dealing with it and addressing it, reducing its high levels and its effects on the economy and investment, and providing services to citizens.”
It is noteworthy that former Iraqi President Barham Salih submitted to the Iraqi parliament in its last session a bill to recover Iraq’s money, which was then estimated at about $150 billion, which had been smuggled since 2003 until today. During a televised interview on Sunday, US Ambassador Elena Romansky expressed the United States’ readiness to stand by the Prime Minister in the fight against corruption. In addition, the Iraqi economic expert, Abdul Rahman Al-Mashhadani, confirmed in a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat that “focusing on specific points in the government program, especially since Al-Sudani had set the age of his government for a year; The fact that there are early elections, included in the program, makes it very difficult to fight corruption within a year.” Al-Mashhadani added that “fighting corruption should indeed be a first priority; But in the absence of focus on specific points in this area, as well as the presence of other points in the program that cannot be dealt with within a year, makes the task difficult, although everyone knows that if corruption issues are addressed, they can pave the way for correct solutions to the rest of the problems. and crises.”
Al-Mashhadani explained that “Al-Sudani has already started taking concrete measures, the first of which is changing the directors of the ministerial offices; But there is a problem with some ministers in the same government for more than one reason.”
Al-Mashhadani called – in the context of the procedures that should be followed in the field of combating corruption – to “strengthen the oversight institutions; Especially in light of the abolition of the offices of the inspectors general, who were – despite the negatives that accompanied the work of some of them – the first line in confronting corruption, in addition to strengthening the role of the Integrity Commission, with the support it needs for its work, as well as financial control and public prosecution; Where this device has been weakened.”
Al-Mashhadani explained that “among the priorities that the Sudanese should work on, is combating poverty, especially since he worked on that when he was Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, in terms of increasing those covered by social protection and increasing job opportunities; Especially in the private sector, and the legislation of the Social Security Law.
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