EBRIL, Kurdistan Region - Kirkuk Governor Rebwar Taha announced Thursday that authorities are closing unauthorized structures at two checkpoints in the province, where money allegedly was illegally collected during the previous administration.
The governor’s office will be shutting down illegally-constructed shacks which are "encroaching on lands belonging to the [Iraqi] Ministry of Finance," Taha announced at a press conference.
He said the decision follows complaints of unauthorized tolls at the Chiman and Darman checkpoints which are located on the Kirkuk-Sulaimani and Kirkuk-Erbil roads, respectively.
“In the previous administration, there were those who facilitated such violations, but in our administration that will not happen,” said Taha.
Taha said drivers who passed through were illegally charged around 5,000 Iraqi dinars (around $3.50).
“We have notified the encroacher[s] to remove their encroachment as soon as possible due to this illegal procedure of collecting money, which has been ongoing since the previous administration," he added.
Taha said Kirkuk police will monitor the area to ensure no further money is taken from people, and illegally-built structures will be dismantled to prevent future misuse.
“Our message to all encroachers is that they will be held legally accountable,” he said, stressing that the administration is committed to enforcing the law and protecting citizens.
On September 14, Taha told Rudaw that certain individuals had set up a customs yard in the province to illegally collect money, adding that he had instructed authorities to arrest them and hand them over to the judiciary.
After an investigation, Taha said it was revealed that the Kirkuk investment authority had not issued a license for the operation, and the local government was unaware of its existence. He claimed the individuals involved were working in coordination with an"group of irresponsible officials" in the province - without naming any party.
Taha is a Kurd and assumed the position last month following a disputed vote replacing Rakan al-Jabouri, who had served as acting governor of Kirkuk since the ousting of Kurdish Peshmerga forces in October 2017 when the Iraqi federal government returned to power in the oil-rich province.
One of Taha’s first actions was to sign a decree retiring Jabouri, who had reached Iraq’s legal retirement age of 60.
In June, Iraq’s federal integrity commission said that it had evidence that several real estate properties were given to a relative of Jabouri “in violation of the law.”
In June, Dler Zidan, head of Kirkuk’s investment authority, told Rudaw that they had filed a complaint against Jabouri after he sought to have a housing project, covering around 235 dunams of land, allocated to his brother.
