ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Erbil and Baghdad's integrity commissions have agreed to enhance cooperation in pursuing corruption suspects and recovering stolen public funds, the federal and regional bodies said Thursday in a joint statement, affirming that administrative borders would not serve as a “safe haven” for corrupt individuals.
Iraq's Federal Commission of Integrity (FCoI) and the Commission of Integrity in the Kurdistan Region affirmed their “determination to enhance the level of cooperation and coordination among them” in a way that advances “the integration of oversight bodies across all of Iraq,” the statement said.
The move statement followed a visit by FCoI head Mohammed Ali al-Lami to the Kurdistan Region, where he met with top officials including Ahmed Anwar, head of the region's integrity commission. Several meetings were held within that framework with the two commissions emphasizing “the need to intensify the deterrent role of anti-corruption institutions” to streamline procedures, the statement said.
The statement stressed “the importance of developing cooperation mechanisms to execute judicial warrants, orders, and rulings” in a way that ensures law enforcement and “prevents individuals wanted in corruption cases from exploiting administrative or geographic boundaries to evade legal process, fostering a unified team approach to tracking and bringing them before the competent judiciary.”
“There will be no safe haven for corrupt individuals or for the proceeds and yields of corruption," the two commissions asserted, underlining cooperation between oversight bodies in Erbil and Baghdad as "a fundamental pillar in tightening control against escape routes, preventing the concealment of corruption proceeds, and boosting recovery efforts to return funds to the public treasury.”
The development comes months into Operation Dawn, a large-scale anti-corruption campaign launched in late June by Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi in coordination with the FCoI, under which security forces and judicial bodies have conducted dozens of targeted raids across Baghdad and multiple provinces, arresting over 200 government officials and employees.
In terms of asset recovery, Iraqi authorities have seized tens of millions of dollars and hundreds of billions of Iraqi dinars in cash - including a single recovery of $20.34 million linked to former oil officials - along with over 400 kilograms of gold, more than 200 properties, dozens of luxury vehicles, watches, and caches of arms and ammunition.
In the wake of Operation Dawn, Rudaw learned in early July that Erbil had arrested and handed over at least two Iraqi lawmakers to Baghdad following arrest warrants issued by federal authorities.
Moreover, Herem Kemal Agha, head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) bloc in the Iraqi parliament, noted at the time that Kurdish politicians were “the least implicated in the corruption cases” uncovered by the crackdown, affirming that the Kurdistan Region “is not at all part of the scourge.”
Importantly, the statement by the FCoI and Erbil’s integrity commission comes a day after Lami was hosted by Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani who reaffirmed to the Iraqi official the Region's “readiness to provide all necessary cooperation” to “uphold the law, safeguard the independence of institutions, and preserve the authority of the judiciary.”
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