Allawi is shocked by the decision to arrest him and seize his money: I will devote the rest of my life to exposing the perpetrators of the “theft of the century”
Allawi is shocked by the decision to arrest him and seize his money: I will devote the rest of my life to exposing the perpetrators of the “theft of the century”
2023-03-14 10:26
Shafaq News / The former Minister of Finance, Ali Allawi, responded Monday, to the decision to seize his movable and immovable money in what is known as the “theft of the century”, and while expressing his rejection of these accusations against him, he demanded an international court to investigate the matter, indicating that he will issue a detailed file of all steps And the measures we took in the Ministry of Finance to prevent abuses in the Tax Authority and its response to the parliamentary report on this theft.
The former Minister of Finance, Ali Abdul Amir Allawi, said in a statement issued to Shafaq News agency, “Last week, a series of judicial orders were issued against me, including seizing my movable and immovable funds, and an arrest and investigation order, and these procedures were related to the so-called theft of the century, and it was The charge against me is specifically facilitating the seizure of tax secretariat amounts, and I do not have detailed information on what these accusations are based on, but I have been informed that this information is kept confidential.”
Allawi added, “I received this news initially through social media, and not from any official source, and it became clear that the order to seize my money was sent by the Supreme Judicial Council to the Ministry of Finance on (February 2, 2023), that is, about a month before I heard about it on social media.” Likewise, the arrest warrant was not delivered to my home in Baghdad or any other address belonging to me, but was in the form of a post on the website of the Integrity Commission.”
Allawi continued, “In fact, I find these procedures shocking, and question my integrity, my years of service in Iraq, and for the benefit of the Iraqi people, and I completely and absolutely reject these baseless accusations.”
And the former minister stated, “When I assumed the duties of the Ministry of Finance, our financial conditions were miserable with the depletion of the treasury, the spread of the Corona pandemic, and the collapse of oil prices. We succeeded in overcoming these very difficult challenges, and we paid off the risk of defaulting on debt payments, and we were able to guarantee the payment of salaries and we started the reform process embodied in the white paper, At the end of the term of Prime Minister Al-Kazemi’s government, the foreign exchange reserves approached 100 billion dollars, and the treasury had a surplus account of more than 25 billion dollars. We left the new government with very strong financial conditions to supplement the state budget.
And the minister continued, “I worked hard and sincerely in my position as Minister of Finance to obstruct and expose corrupt practices. In the Ministry of Finance, I cooperated fully with the Integrity Commission, and did not hesitate to provide them with sensitive files when there were suspicions of corruption on them, and most importantly, I prevented a contract that would have imposed costs.” Unjustified exorbitant amounts amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars on clients of the largest state bank.
Minister Allawi pointed out that he had launched the automation of the customs administration by contracting with a United Nations agency to obtain an internationally known customs automation system. I was advanced in developing the tender requirements for the automation of the tax authority and the tax system, in cooperation with the World Bank. This automation on corruption operations.I worked on a completely new modern set of internal regulations for government banks, especially Al-Rafidian, which if implemented would raise our banking sector to international standards, and one of the priorities was the digitization of banks.These two measures would have greatly reduced the occurrence of Corruption in the banking sector.
With regard to the theft of the century, the former minister explained that he “took a number of measures in October and November 2021, when there were indications of breaches in the Tax Authority, and in particular, I issued, on November 4, 2021, a ministerial order to the Director General of the Tax Authority preventing them From issuing any tax refund from the trust account without the approval of the minister’s office, and it became clear after that that the Director General of the Tax Authority did not comply with the ministerial directives. If these orders were implemented, the vast majority of thefts would not have occurred.”
And the minister stated, “When I joined the government of Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, I was 72 years old. I left another world of writing and lectures to serve my country at this advanced age. I made it clear that I was not interested in politics and that my focus would be exclusively on laying the groundwork for reforming the Iraqi economy, and she was a warrior.” Corruption is an essential part of this plan.”
The minister indicated that “in my resignation statement dated August 16, 2022, from the position of Minister of Finance, I frankly addressed my concern about the extent of corruption in the country, its threat to Iraq as a state and the damage caused to its effectiveness in providing security and prosperity to the Iraqi people throughout the years that have passed, and after I left “The Integrity Commission for Work contacted me to provide them with information regarding the issues I raised in my resignation statement. I informed them that I was outside the country and did not hear from them until two months later. I informed them of my complete readiness to communicate with them and help them, but again, there was no official answer from them.”
Separately, the Minister continued, “I had appeared for three hours before the Parliamentary Subcommittee to Investigate the Theft of the Century in a televised link call, and I have always acted honestly and sincerely and never shirked my responsibility to cooperate fully with the official authorities. However, this did happen.” “The amazing turn of events as I am now accused of the very crimes I spent years exposing and fighting. These formal charges were preceded by a torrent of leaks against me on social media.”
“This was followed by an unprecedented appearance on television by the investigating judge in the case where he pointed the finger at me by describing me in detail without actually naming me. This was before any charge was brought against me, so I can only think that there were serious mistakes in the “The investigation process, or I am a scapegoat for a charge of which I am completely innocent, is intended to cover up the real thieves. I will never accept these false accusations, and I will fight to show that these accusations are outrageous.”
Furthermore, the minister explained in his statement, “I will dedicate the remainder of my life to exposing the ramifications of the robbery of the century, from its planners, perpetrators, accomplices, and beneficiaries to those who systematically covered up this crime and leveled an outrageous charge on a completely innocent party, and I will help expose them and bring them to justice, by God.” Watch what I say.”
And the minister indicated that “under these circumstances, it will be difficult to see how conditions for a fair trial can be met in Iraq. The scope, scale and complexity of the theft of the century and its political dimensions make it necessary to consider the formation of an international tribunal to investigate the matter.”
The minister concluded his statement by saying, “As a first step, I will soon issue a detailed file of all the steps and measures we have taken in the Ministry of Finance to prevent abuses in the Tax Authority. I will also respond to the final report of the parliamentary subcommittee on theft of the century, particularly the items related to my decisions in the ministry in this regard.”
shafaq.com
