Iraq moves up Transparency International corruption ranking

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq has moved up in the Transparency International global corruption ranking, the head of the country’s anti-corruption body announced on Tuesday, as the country continues to suffer from endemic corruption.

“The Corruption Perceptions Index report issued by Transparency International for the year 2023 was studied in all its aspects … Iraq ranked seventh in the Arab world and 153rd [sic] globally out of 180 countries included in the organization’s list after obtaining a score of 23 out of 100 points,” Haider Hanoun, head of Iraq’s integrity commission, said during a speech at the Arab Forum for Enhancing Transparency and Good Governance held in Baghdad.

According to Transparency International’s report Iraq ranks 154th globally, improving three spots from the previous year, when it was ranked 157th among 180 countries. 

Rampant corruption plagues all levels of the Iraqi state, a phenomenon that the country’s current government has pledged to eliminate. Official figures published in 2022 estimated that well over 400 billion dollars have gone missing from state coffers since former dictator Saddam Hussein’s regime was toppled in 2003.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani said during a speech at the UN General Assembly last year that combatting corruption has been his cabinet’s foremost priority.

“Identifying and combatting corruption has been our foremost priority. We have taken measures to pursue individuals involved in corruption, regardless of their positions or affiliations, and handed them over to the judiciary for accountability,” Sudani told the UN.

Hanoun’s remarks come as the country remains riddled by the twists and turns of a massive theft of $2.5 billion from the country’s tax coffers, dubbed the “Heist of the Century.”

An investigation by the Iraqi finance ministry in October 2022 concluded that over $2.5 billion (3.7 trillion dinars) in tax funds were stolen from a bank by five companies during the tenure of former Finance Minister Ali Allawi. 

Last week, Hanoun called for a special parliamentary session on the matter, saying that the credibility of the integrity commission was at stake.

Updated at 6:40 p.m. with Iraq’s ranking on the report