By Abbas al-Baghdadi
Azzaman, December 5, 2014
Corruption is common in all government institutions but it is most rampant in the ministries of defense, municipalities, oil, trade and interior, the anti-corruption parliamentary commission has found.
“Large Iraqi factions protect those taking bribes and cover them,” the commission said. “In fact (institutions) have become geniuses in bribing.”
The remarks by Jaafar al-Mawsawi come as a new investigation in the Iraqi army has found an underground military force named “ghost soldiers” who were on the payroll but never existed in reality.
The investigation revealed that there were 50,000 false names who received salaries in the Iraqi armed forces, including soldiers who had deserted ore were killed.
The investigation was carried out following the surprise collapse of several Iraqi divisions last summer as Islamic State militants invaded huge areas in northern and western Iraq.
“Corruption has crept into all sectors of the state due to the absence of a real desire to combat it,” Mawsawi told Azzaman. “Some political factions have infiltrated the Commission on Integrity in a bid not to allow certain ministers or senior officials to be questioned.”
Mawsawi said it was wrong to think that “ghost soldiers” only existed in the Ministry of Defense.
“Ghosts are not only a characteristic of the Ministry of Defense. They are there in the Ministry of Interior, the parliament, the cabinet, the Baghdad Municipality and establishments not linked to ministries.”
Each political faction has a representative to collect levies imposed on contractors and projects under implementation, he said.
“The ministries of municipalities, defense, health, labor, trade, oil and others have high levels of corruption,” he said, adding that besides mafias specialized in kidnapping and murder there are “economic mafias” bent on corruption.
The Commission on Integrity, the government’s anti-corruption arm, has failed to bring high ranking officials to justice despite findings by independent commissions among them the U.N. that corruption mars the country’s rebuilding with billions of dollars reported lost every year.
