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Iraq Faces the Mother of all Corruption Scandals
Allegations of kickbacks rock key government department as 1,000 officials face arrest and Trade Minister is forced to resign
BAGHDAD - Iraq plans to arrest 1,000 officials for corruption after a scandal which has forced the resignation of the Trade Minister and is threatening the food supply of millions of Iraqis.
People clamour for food in Baghdad - around 25 per cent of Iraqis live below the poverty line (Photo: the Independent) Corruption at the Trade Ministry is an important issue in Iraq because the ministry is in charge of the food rationing system on which 60 per cent of Iraqis depend. Officials at the ministry, which spends billions of dollars buying rice, sugar, flour and other items, are notorious among Iraqis for importing food that is unfit for human consumption, for which they charge the state the full international price.
The scandal first erupted in April when police, entering the Trade Ministry in Baghdad to arrest 10 senior officials accused of corruption and embezzlement, were greeted with gunfire by the ministry's own guards. The shoot-out allowed several officials, including two brothers of the Trade Minister, Abdul Falah al-Sudany, time to escape out the back gate.
The political crisis over corruption has escalated after a video surfaced showing Trade Ministry officials at a party, apparently drinking alcohol, cavorting with prostitutes, and deriding the Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki.
The voice of the man shooting the video, widely viewed and sent from phone to phone in Baghdad, is heard shouting to the dancing girls: "You before Maliki". Guests at the party who were captured on the video are said to include one of Mr Sudany's brothers and the ministry's spokesman.
"We have the video of Trade Ministry officials hosting a party that is unethical and out of control," said Sabah al-Saadi, the chairman of the Commission for Public Integrity. "This party represents the impact of nepotism on the government and wasting of funds by senior officials' family members."
Mr Sudany, who has not been charged and denies all wrongdoing, resigned on Sunday soon after his brother and aide Sabah Mohammed, who had earlier escaped from the police, was arrested with his bodyguards when his car was stopped at Samawa, 140 miles south of Baghdad. Security and police officials said cash, gold and identity cards were found in the car.
Iraq is deemed the third most corrupt country in the world after Burma and Somalia, out of 180 countries, according to the corruption index compiled by Transparency International.
Although it is an important oil producer, many Iraqis are on the edge of starvation; 20-25 per cent of Iraq's 27 million people live below the poverty line on less than $66 (£41) a month.
Amid claims that Mr Sudany's relatives had made millions out of kickbacks from sugar purchases, Mr Maliki visited the leaderless Trade Ministry this week saying that his office would take over its functions. A committee is to take charge of Iraq's large import programme for grain and foodstuffs. "We will not keep silent about corruption after this day and we will chase all the corrupt and bring them before the judiciary," Mr Maliki said.
The Integrity Commission says it issued 387 arrest warrants in April, including warrants for 51 officials who are department heads. In addition, it has 997 arrest warrants not yet issued and Mr Maliki has told the security forces to arrest all those named.
The committee in charge of food purchases will draw its members from the Prime Minister's office, the cabinet secretariat, the corruption watchdog and the audit department. "It will buy foodstuffs in a swift and proper manner and sign agreements with the world's big companies to buy essential foodstuffs without the use of intermediaries," Mr Maliki said.
Iraqis will be sceptical about the anti-corruption campaign until they see senior officials convicted and punished. It is not only the Trade Ministry which is corrupt but the entire government system. Officials have often purchased their jobs, which they see as a way of making money through bribery or payment for awarding jobs and contracts. The last anti-corruption boss in Iraq was forced to flee the country.
And supply of tainted goods is not confined to the Trade Ministry. Refugees living in Sadr City, the great Shia slum with a population of two million in east Baghdad, were expecting food and clothing from the Ministry of Displacement and Migration but when the shipment arrived, the refugees were enraged to discover that it consisted of scratchy thin grey woollen blankets smelling of mould which were useless in the torrid heat of the Iraqi summer. There were also an assortment of children's shoes and 25 boxes of canned tuna. Locals suspect that officials had pocketed most of the money intended to help them.
The breakdown of the rationing system, started in 1995 under Saddam Hussein, threatens millions of Iraqis with malnourishment. The rations consist of items sold for a small sum of money at retail outlets on production of a ration card. They include rice (3kg a person), sugar (2kg), flour (9kg), cooking oil (1.25kg), milk for adults (250 grams), tea (200g), beans, children's milk, soap, detergents and tomato paste.
A survey by the Ministry of Planning and Development Cooperation found that 18 per cent of people had not received the full food ration for 13 months and 32 per cent had not received it for seven to 12 months. When rations do come, they are often of poor quality and Iraqis say that the tea supplied tastes disgusting.
30 Comments so far
Show AllAnd what exactly is Obama doing about it? Plans to keep asking for Billions to fund the corruption in Iraq like Bush did? What else? Plans to occupy (and fund) Iraq perpetually? At some point, stating that you inherited a problem while propagating it will wear thin as more people recognize the obfuscation that both Administrations have a vested interest in maintaining rhetorical illusions which tells us, 'Obama is making things better,when in point of fact, he is part of the same egregious problem.'
More change we can believe in apparently: a marketing schema to nowhere.
"The shoot-out allowed several officials, time to escape out the back gate."
Hmm... wouldn't you station cops at the back gate before going in?
Oh, I forgot. They are US-trained policemen. At quite a cost also.
The New Iraq~
Proudly we can label: 'Made in Amerika'.
Corruption?
Es ist gut!
(They have freedom just like us now.)
Fifty per cent of the people had not received the full food rations over the past twelve months
WTF ...where is the media?
No real news comes out of Iraq and Afghanistan
Big Brother does not want us to know the sorry truth
Where are the media? Doing their job, smothering realities.
But our masters have been murdering our equals in Iraq for the last 18 years, first with war, then with sanctions, then with war & occupation. The world is so much safer without Saddam Hussein -- unless, of course, you lived through his reign into the birth of AmerIraq.
Hey, looks like the Iraqis are getting the hang of "American style 'democracy'", except that they seem to be attempting to hold their corrupt public officials accountable for hideous crimes. Well, whaddya want, they're still new at this.
That is exactly what I was thinking!
Exactly right! How many people from Haliburton have been arrested? bush and Cheney still run free. Iraqis look to be far ahead of us in attacking corruption.
How dare Maliki "look back" and arrest people in government.
I assume a large part of the money comes from oil sales.
The USA aid goes into the pockets of corrupt USA do nothing contractors which our forward looking president should be prosecuting for War Profiteering.
Speaking of which we are being gas gouged again.
Maliki for USA President !!!
Ahhh...."Let them eat cake..."
Go back before 1991, Baghdad, was the most modern secular city in the Arab region.
That's exactly the kind of "freedom" we wanted to bring to Iraq--Mission Accomplished!
See Bush was right.
It is possible to bring American style democracy to IRAQ.
The Iraqis got it wrong, they are arresting the corrupt politicians.
In all probability, those who are making the arrests are corrupt competitors. But I could be wrong.
Joe
You probably have that right. I expect that over time they will learn to work better together, like Republicans and Democrats.
"But I could be wrong."
Joe,
You are being modest. You know you are right...
We've taught them well, Obi Wan...
If this is the mother of all scandals, what title does the US government get?
A relevant aside to this whole putrid mess that this item was reported in a U.K. news source. How come this is not a lead news item on American corporate news media?
Note: the prior question was a rhetorical one.
I'm sure glad I don't live in a desert...yet...
Water still flows
Food still grows
Wind still blows
How long? Who knows?
The reality of this is that in order for there to be any resolution the American people have to do only one thing to change everything.
Accept that they have an absolute corrupt culture and society and make the needed changes.
Corruption is multifaceted in that in order for it to thrive as it has in the USA to where it is an integral part of the culture, the many who participated in the corruption need the many who do not to simply ignore the corruption even to the point of denial.
The Americans are famous for spreading the corruption in their culture wherever they go, and now, they make war based on lies that the corruption produces, and then open the 'market' for more corruption---and it goes on and on.
If there is a 'vicious dog' in your community the community moves to put the 'vicious dog' under control, or kill it; so that the other members of the community may live in peace and safety.
America, take this from one of slightly over 2.7 million survivors of your 'corruption culture', the Native Americans; if you do not make some very drastic changes, and drastically soon, the world will step in and you will be as the 'vicious dog'---either in a 'pen', or a 'dead dog', and the community will be safe and America; a horrible example for history.
Good Luck America, you really need it.
Hear, here...but the average flag waving, lapel pin wearing, blinders on, hand over heart, TV watching, non thinking, gun toting,.. etc. will never swallow their ignorant pride and admit wrongdoing...because for some reason they believe that God is american(most likely white) and can do no wrong... and yes, we need luck and lots of it, a few thinking and acting leaders wouldn't hurt either. I always appreciate your take, Native Son, you are right on...
What? Corruption? I am shocked, shocked do you hear, to learn that there is corruption going on at Paul Bremer's place! - - - He said with a coprophagous smirk. - - - "Mission Accomplished"
I have a laugh for you all CD.
The Failure of The Occupation Forces to fix generators and provide electricity was sad and newsworthy until it became the norm in Iraq as now.
Here is the punchline. Maliki is seeking electricity from Iran for this summer! Natanz's need underlined and validated by the US/Zionist creation, the Maliki mis-government.
Ironic X 10.
THIRD most corrupt????
No....try fourth most corrupt. Some jackass was paid off to not list the USA as THE most corrupt.
yeah, but isn't Monsanto 'poised' to save the day? Just like they're helping the suicidal farmers in India.
you bring up a vital point about the insidiousness of "war profiteering" is the evil twin of "peace profiteering" by the likes of Bechtel & Monsanto....
disturbing, but the article gives the strong impression that these are just bizness as usual practices for dirty iraqis. no mention of the nightmarish US role in all this.
We are told that the surge was a success, but never do we hear the truth that millions of Iraqis are displaced.We also do not hear the truth about the corruption scandals. The oil for food program of the U.N. was riddled with corruption during the economic sanctions. The" investigations revealed evidence of corruption and mismanagement on the part of U.N. officials and contractors involved with the oil for food program, and called into question the lack of action on the part of U.N. Sanctions Committee members, including the U.S., to halt Iraq's profitable oil sales outside of the program over a ten year period."(CRS REPORT for CONGRESS 1-24-2007). Anyone who knew the impact of suffering and early deaths of mostly Iraqi children due to the sanctions would not be surprised to learn that people who overlooked the sanctions would be corrupt. I am heart broken to read that the Iraqi people are still suffering. I wondered who the U.S. would blame after the bad man Saddam was dead.