Combating corruption ‘priority’ for Iraqi government, says PM Sudani

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani on Friday stated that combating corruption is among the priorities of his government, calling it the main reason for the state’s reluctance to conduct its duties.

On the International Anti-Corruption Day, the Iraqi premier reiterated his cabinet’s commitment to battling the endemic corruption that plagues all levels of the Iraqi state, a day after the second batch was retrieved from the $2.5 billion stolen in tax funds. 

“No economic or service effort can achieve what is required without there being serious work to confront this scourge, recover the looted funds, and pursue the wanted,” read a tweet from Sudani on Friday.

An investigation by the Iraqi finance ministry in October concluded that $2.5 billion in tax funds were stolen from the General Commission of Taxes’ account at Baghdad's Rafidain Bank between September 2021 and August 2022, during the tenure of former finance minister Ali Allawi.

Over 317 billion Iraqi dinars (over $218 million) has been so far retrieved from one of the suspects in the theft. Sudani has vowed to reveal all the parties involved in the crime, which he claims also includes governmental elements, once the investigations are concluded.

The Iraqi PM on Friday also announced the re-activation of the Diwani Order Committee (293), which is “concerned with investigating the killing of demonstrators and compensating the injured demonstrators,” in light of the killing of two protesters in Dhi Qar province on Tuesday.

Hundreds of protestors took to the streets of Nasiriyah on Tuesday protesting the issuing of a three-year prison sentence to Haider al-Zaidi, a 20-year-old Iraqi activist who allegedly criticized Iranian-backed Iraqi militias such as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi) on Twitter. 

The protestors were met with live bullets by security forces, killing two and injuring at least 17, sources told AP on the condition of anonymity.

Rampant corruption plagues all levels of the Iraqi state, and official figures published last year estimated that well over 400 billion dollars has gone missing from state coffers since former dictator Saddam Hussein's regime was overthrown in 2003.

The crisis-hit country ranks 157 out of 180 countries in Transparency International's corruption perceptions index.