ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Two ministers in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) are among a number of officials who have been charged with corruption, according to a report from the Integrity Commission released on Monday. Building cases and moving them through the court system has been slow because of lack of staff and resources, officials say.
The Integrity Commission has submitted 198 corruption cases to courts in the past year. Just 33 of which have been concluded – 16 in Duhok, 15 in Erbil, and two in Sulaimani.
“The problem is the lack of a special court to deal with corruption cases,” explained Ahmad Anwar, head of Integrity Commission. They have submitted many cases to court and, two years on, hearing dates still have not been set for some of them, he said.
Sulaimani’s court system is especially overloaded and judges are working overtime, he added. Public sector strikes in the province last year also slowed the judicial process.
The Integrity Commission itself is understaffed, with just 13 investigators looking into 800,000 public sector employees. They requested parliament to amend the 2017 Council of Ministers decree that created the framework it operates under in order to let them bring on more staff.
“But the section was not amended due to disagreements among political factions. Instead of supporting the request of the commission, the parliament prevented it. And this hurt endeavors to confront corruption a lot,” Anwar said.
“Without necessary investigators, the commission is like a university without teachers,” the commission said in its report.
The commission also outlined another problem – the abundance of immunity in the upper echelons of power that is preventing investigations into those accused of corruption. Many syndicates have immunity, meaning their members can appear before a court only if the syndicate gives its permission.
“In many offices, when one of their members is accused of corruption, he should take permission from his boss [to be able to appear before the court]. Some syndicates have fixed this in their laws. And this has created problems because having immunity or having to take permission from your boss prevents investigations,” Anwar said.
They have asked the integrity commission law be amended so that such immunity measures do not apply in corruption cases, he added.
Two of the accused waiting for court hearings are government ministers, who were unnamed by the commission. Three municipal heads, a major general, nine police officers, three general managers, a journalist, two town councilors, one mayor, and a professor are among those facing charges.
The Ministry of Finance and the Economy has the largest number of corruption cases with 29, followed by the Ministry of the Interior with 26, and then the Ministry of Municipalities and Tourism with 19 cases.
“This doesn’t mean the most corruption was in the Ministry of Finance,” explained Anwar. “Most cases were made against the Ministry of Finance last year because of the contractors’ cheques. This year, the order might be different – another ministry might be at the top of the list.”
The accused face years in prison if convicted. A bank employee in the province was sentenced to eight years in prison and another 12 months. The former president of Nawroz University in Duhok was sentenced to 18 years in prison last December, in absentia.
Ahmad Saleh, head of the integrity body at Duhok University, confirmed the former president of Nawroz University has been sentenced: “The criminal court in Duhok had ordered his arrest on three counts, in accordance with article 340 of the Iraqi penal code. But he hasn’t been arrested yet. That is why the criminal court sentenced him in absentia, giving him six years in prison for each count. But we don’t know why he has not been arrested yet.”
The Integrity Commission estimates that nearly 298.5 billion dinars ($250 million) is wrapped up in the corruption cases. They have so far recuperated almost 5.4 billion dinars ($4.5 million), mostly in Sulaimani province.
“The amount we have indicated in the report doesn’t necessarily mean it is the actual amount of money involved in corruption cases in Kurdistan. There are many cases that haven’t been referred to us,” Anwar said.
Iraq ranks among the most corrupt nations worldwide.
