Lawmakers call on Iraqi authorities to help probe into money transfer scheme

Lawmakers call on Iraqi authorities to help probe into money transfer scheme

 
By Rudaw   yesterday at 01:00  

An Iraqi woman holding up a sign reading, "No To Stealing Public Money." AFP photo
   

SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region— Iraqi lawmakers say they have asked the government to help the Integrity Commission of the parliament to probe into billions of dollars of oil revenues allegedly transferred overseas since late 2003.

Spokesman for the committee Adil Nouri told Rudaw the investigated money could be as large as around $360 billion, which has been transferred to regional or international banks by “influential Iraqi politicians.”

“We have undisputed documents that show for example $6 billion of that money is in Lebanon with photographs of the cash available,” Adil said and added the Iraqi government had hired an American law firm to bring back the money.

“We know about another $14 billion that is currently in other regional countries with all the necessary documents that prove it,” the lawmaker said without identifying the banks or the countries that received the amount.

Earlier this month, the commission asked authorities to issue the arrest of 2165 individuals in the country whom they officially charged for embezzlement and bribery after concluded investigations. 

But the overseas transfer of money has been largely uninvestigated so far because of the jurisdictions of the commission, Nouri said.  

Iraq has frequently topped the list of the least transparent nations in the past decade where widespread corruption has made it almost impossible for the government to run the country.  

According to the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) reported by Transparency International, Iraq was the least transparent country in 2007 of the total of 178 nations enlisted in the index.

The commission has said the regional countries have not been “cooperative” in deporting wanted officials to Iraq to face the charges. 

“Several high ranking executives from the ministry of interior and finances have already been called to the parliament to testify, but without much progress,” said another lawmaker Kawa Muhammad. 

“This is illegal transfer of money which partly caused the financial crisis we have witnessed since the money involved is so huge,” said Muhammad.

http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/20072016