Ali Allawi issues a clarification regarding the amounts stolen from taxes

Ali Allawi issues a clarification regarding the amounts stolen from taxes

20-10-2022

On Wednesday, former Finance Minister Ali Allawi issued a clarification regarding the stolen amounts from the Tax Authority that caused an uproar a few days ago, describing them as “the biggest financial scandals in the modern era.”

Allawi said in a statement, that “on August 16, 2022, I submitted a resignation from the Iraqi government,” noting that “at that time, he explained in a detailed statement the reasons for the resignation, the decay and deterioration of state institutions, especially in the financial and banking sector, and the spread of illegal interventions from outside the ministry in the administration of The state”.

“Two months after the resignation we faced perhaps one of the biggest financial scandals of the modern era, the uproar from the angry public was just right because it is inconceivable that such a huge amount of money could be stolen so brazenly with complete impunity from oversight, accountability and punishment,” he added.

However, he added, “But the enormous scope of the scandal also provides opportunities to make irresponsible allegations and draw conclusions without any serious justification. For this purpose, it was found necessary to explain in detail the position of the Ministry of Finance from the perspective of the Minister of Finance so that the public is aware of the facts of the matter.”

Allawi revealed that “on July 13, 2021, the letter of the Financial Committee of the previous parliament was received in the number 2021, requesting that the audit of the tax and customs secretariats be limited by the General Tax Authority without going through the Financial Supervision Bureau. The Commission”.

He points out that “there are correspondences between the Financial Supervision Bureau and the Prime Minister’s Office on the same content, where the Financial Supervision Bureau supports the proposal of the Parliament’s Financial Committee,” stressing by saying, “Another letter was received from the former Chairman of the Financial Committee, number 2126 on August 3, 2021 to the Minister of Finance confirming the request.” And refers to the approval of the Office of the Prime Minister and the Board of Financial Supervision in light of their correspondence referred to above.

Allawi indicated that “a letter was received to the Minister of Finance from the General Authority for Taxes, number 61 Q/1046, on August 10, 2021, in which he refers to the above books and approvals, and asks the Minister of Finance to act on them,” stressing that “the approval of the Minister of Finance on August 26, 2021 was carried out in accordance with The above was based on the request of the legislative body represented by the financial committee of the previous parliament and the approval of the Financial Supervision Bureau and the Prime Minister’s Office, as well as the request of the body responsible for the process, the General Authority for Taxes, which the request allows it to do so is the nature of the work structure in the ministry, which includes the establishment of institutions, companies and bodies affiliated with , to manage its financial affairs in accordance with the laws of its founding, and in accordance with the established powers and principles, with the offer that the approval of the Minister of Finance was conditional on the implementation of the regulations in force in the matter.

And the former Minister of Finance continues by saying, “and to ensure that the tax trusts are not tampered with, the Minister of Finance issued on August 5, 2021 Ministerial Order No. 5 in which he decided to form a central ministerial committee headed by him for the purpose of organizing and supervising the tasks of tax work, including following up on taxpayers’ responses and coordinating with the financial department about the validity of Pay the taxpayer.”

He considered that “the above administrative measures and control tools instructed by the Minister of Finance led to the impossibility of acquiring tax trusts by promoting false return transactions by the group accused of theft,” adding, “The Integrity Commission investigated some transactions of refunding tax trusts, and the results were questionable.” This investigation is in the Federal Integrity Commission letter No. 5/7079 dated August 31, 2021, which indicated that the Integrity Commission did not request the suspension of the instrument resulting from the questionable tax deposit refund transaction and the absence of damage to public funds. Refund of tax deposits.

Allawi confirmed that he “informed the Prime Minister’s Office several times about the exciting dangers in allowing this situation to continue,” adding, “On September 29, 2021, the Minister of Finance told the Prime Minister’s Office literally, ‘They are moving around and appointing fools whose chaos I have to clear up later. I can’t go on like this when I know the ministry is eating up from the inside and I can’t do anything about it. All circles are infiltrated by parties and influential people, and there is no one with ability and ability who is ready to work in this atmosphere.”

He continued, “Despite the above, when the Minister’s office received indications that raise suspicion of the continuation of manipulation operations with regard to the recovery of tax deposits, the Minister of Finance addressed on November 1, 2021, the General Authority for Taxes, requesting the priorities of all deposit recovery transactions that took place during the years 2020 and 2021,” explaining that “and to emphasize the Preventing manipulation attributing the Minister of Finance on November 4, 2021 to the failure of the General Authority for Taxes to refund deposits to taxpayers before obtaining the approval of the Minister and to submit all deposit recovery transactions to the Minister after completing all the legal procedures.

And Allawi added, “On November 5, 2021, the Minister of Finance confirmed to the Prime Minister’s office that there were doubts about the continuation of manipulation operations with regard to the recovery of tax deposits. A report was submitted on this,” adding, “What could not be detected is that the group accused of theft liberated Sukuk without promoting deposit recovery transactions through a direct process between the General Tax Authority and Rafidain Bank and without being disclosed by the Ministry’s Audit and Control Department.

He added, “Therefore, what happened is a process that was carried out within the corridors of the General Authority for Taxes and Rafidain Bank, and among the powers available to them, without the Ministry of Finance having any interference in these dangerous practices. As the Minister of Finance did not receive any notification from the Ministry’s departments of the operation. The issuance and withdrawal of the aforementioned instruments, and the Rafidain Bank, in turn, did not inform the minister about the huge sums that were withdrawn from the bank, despite the minister’s meeting with the banks’ departments periodically to follow up on their affairs.

Allawi pointed out that “the withdrawal of the Financial Supervision Bureau and limiting the process of auditing transactions to return the amounts of tax deposits to the General Authority for Taxes and according to the request of the Financial Committee of the House of Representatives led to an increase in the possibility of fraud against the Tax Authority,” adding, “However, the internal procedures of the Tax Authority to verify the legitimacy of transactions. The trusts should have stopped outright fraud.But what seems to have happened is that the bonds were issued to return the trusts without any recorded transaction or paper trail, meaning that no audit, from any source, could stop them because they were off the records. And that’s how the villains received Bonds that were not recorded in the accounts of the Tax Authority.According to the instructions issued by the Minister of Finance, it was not possible to issue bonds without going through the audit steps of the Tax Authority, followed by the specific approval of the Minister’s office.None of these steps were followed in all the bonds that were issued “.

Allawi promised that “one of the main factors that led to this brazen theft is the fact that the ministry, its affiliates, and the state as a whole are unfortunately behind in terms of adopting automated information, accounting and reporting systems,” adding, “To address this, the Minister of Finance developed four different programs to fully automate the ministry, the customs agencies, and the customs authorities.” and tax, and the creation of a single treasury account. If these systems were fully available, it would have been impossible for a theft of this magnitude to occur. But these programs have not yet been fully installed. It takes more time and will to curb resistance to change and face the widespread and deep resistance to automation to save the systems It is working at full capacity.”

He explained that “some general managers and state employees did not comply with the regulations and laws governing their duties, did not follow the ministerial orders and the minister’s directives, concealed information and prevented the regulatory departments from carrying out their role and reporting, as happened, for example, but not limited to, in the Ashtar case, where the contract was signed despite the fact that the money was signed despite the fact that Explicitly, otherwise, and the issue of tax secretariats, where no less than 247 trust response instruments were issued despite the explicit directive of the Minister of Finance to stop it, all because of loyalty to influential political parties that derive from the whales of corruption and provide immunity to the corrupt.

Allawi advised, “Who is responsible for auditing the accounts of other trusts in the country, including the accounts of the Customs Authority.”

And social networking sites recently published a book issued by the Ministry of Finance entitled to the Integrity Commission regarding allegations of theft of tax deposits deposited in Al-Rafidain Bank amounting to (3.7) trillion Iraqi dinars.

burathanews.com