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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A senior official in Iraq’s electricity ministry was sentenced on Tuesday to four years in jail for receiving bribes in exchange for facilitating supply contracts.
The Supreme Judicial Council said Raad Qassem Mohammed, in his position of director general of the department of economics, contracts and investment in the Ministry of Electricity, “received sums of money in exchange for facilitating contract transactions between the Ministry of Electricity and the Ministry of Industry to supply equipment belonging to his ministry last year in Baghdad.”
In addition to the jail time, Baghdad’s Anti-Corruption Criminal Court ordered him to pay a fine of 10 million dinars.
Iraq suffers from chronic electricity shortages, keenly felt when summer temperatures reach over 50 degrees Celsius. Corruption is one of multiple factors behind the shortages. The minister of electricity resigned in late May, days after prominent Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr demanded his dismissal and started a Twitter campaign protesting power shortages.
Iraq ranks among the most corrupt nations in the world, coming 160 out of 180 nations assessed by Transparency International in their annual report. Public anger about rampant corruption was one of the factors driving anti-government protests that broke out in October 2019.
Last August, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi formed an anti-corruption committee and his government recovered a billion dollars in 2020. But corruption is deeply entrenched in the networks of power that have been fostered since 2003 and the government is “unable” to root it out, Rebwar Karim, member of the parliament’s finance committee, said in April.
The Supreme Judicial Council said Raad Qassem Mohammed, in his position of director general of the department of economics, contracts and investment in the Ministry of Electricity, “received sums of money in exchange for facilitating contract transactions between the Ministry of Electricity and the Ministry of Industry to supply equipment belonging to his ministry last year in Baghdad.”
In addition to the jail time, Baghdad’s Anti-Corruption Criminal Court ordered him to pay a fine of 10 million dinars.
Iraq suffers from chronic electricity shortages, keenly felt when summer temperatures reach over 50 degrees Celsius. Corruption is one of multiple factors behind the shortages. The minister of electricity resigned in late May, days after prominent Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr demanded his dismissal and started a Twitter campaign protesting power shortages.
Iraq ranks among the most corrupt nations in the world, coming 160 out of 180 nations assessed by Transparency International in their annual report. Public anger about rampant corruption was one of the factors driving anti-government protests that broke out in October 2019.
Last August, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi formed an anti-corruption committee and his government recovered a billion dollars in 2020. But corruption is deeply entrenched in the networks of power that have been fostered since 2003 and the government is “unable” to root it out, Rebwar Karim, member of the parliament’s finance committee, said in April.
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