KRG anti-corruption reform must keep moving in the right direction
Change Movement (Gorran)’s main objective in participating in the formation of the new Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) cabinet was reform, to which the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) said: “We have the same intention. The current form of governance is not sustainable.”
A KDP-Gorran agreement emphasized reform. Then, reform and counter-corruption were highlighted in the new cabinet’s agenda. Additionally, when cabinet was inaugurated, it decided to work on the passing of the reform bill about salary, pensions, and the formation of a council to reform the occupational status of civil servants - a step in the right direction.
Dozens of people have illegally been recorded as retired ministers, deputy ministers, major generals, brigadiers and colonels at the expense of the Kurdistan Region’s budget. These people have not worked a single day, but have been retired with high civil and military positions. These reform projects will eradicate this.
The high cost and injustice of the pensions of high-ranking positions is also a big mistake. A young civil servant retires with six million dinars ($5,000) a month for serving as a minister or lawmaker regardless of the number of years of service, their age and qualifications. This is a crime! In addition to its financial waste, it also means cutting short the professional lives of tens of young civil servants who could be great assets.
Thousands of ineligible people receive salaries as veteran Peshmerga fighters, frontline amputees or political prisoners. There are multiple directorates for civil, military and Asayesh pensions. These directorates pay the salaries of Anfal victims, martyrs and political prisoners, for social pensions, and those with disabilities. However, some of these people receive various salaries simultaneously. All these directorates will be dissolved, and only the Pension Directorate - affiliated with the Ministry of Finance - will remain to oversee the process.
Tens of people have been recorded as retired from positions higher than those they held, but these positions will be taken away from them.
Some others use methods to allow them to receive multiple salaries, but this will be banned.
The dissolution of some Peshmerga unit finance departments – including the 70th and 80th units -- is an important part of this reform project, aiming to formalize force structure.
One significant form of corruption is officials and their offices being given guards arbitrarily. However, one of the articles of the reform bill determines who shall have guards and how many guards should they have.
Some partisan officials, who used to be part of the leadership of his or her party, still keep 50 guards. Some Jash (Kurds who collaborated with Saddam Hussein) and Mustashars (his Kurdish advisors) have more than 50 guards. A number of officials run whole military units. This should all be subject to reorganization.
Corruption and phantom employment in the Peshmerga and other security forces are big issues in the Kurdistan Region. Forty-eight percent of the Region’s budget goes to the security forces, but much of this pays for ghost employees or illegal guards. If reorganized, most of these issues will be resolved.
This reform is very important, but we also have to work on reorganizing internal income, tax and our oil dossier. We are currently working with some experts to prepare a project to reorganize internal income.
There are about 22,000 companies in Kurdistan Region. How much tax do they pay? Some companies make 300 million dollars per year, but apparently have not paid taxes.
Some giant companies, with government support, do not pay taxes because of what they say are cross-border tax pardons, lying by saying their goods are to be transmitted to Syria so that they only pay one fifth of the tax they have to pay.
Due to some crooked contracts with government, a number of water, trash and license plate companies make extortionate amounts of money.
Some companies receive money for services they never perform. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been taken by some companies for allegedly providing services and security to oil fields. The corruption found here is unparalleled.
If reforms are done in these fields, Kurdistan Region will enter a new stage of being. We will use all our energy for them. Everyone must demand and support reforms.
Translated by Karwan Faidhi Dri
Ali Hama Saleh is head of the Gorran bloc in Kurdistan Parliament. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rudaw. |