Ministerial veto, violence block Iraq graft fight

By Staff
|
Google Oneindia News

BAGHDAD, Mar 6 (Reuters) Lack of security for investigators and ministerial vetoes of investigations are hampering efforts to tackle graft in Iraq, one of the world's most corrupt countries, a US official said today.

Boots Poliquin, director of the newly formed US Office of Accountability and Transparency (OAT) in Baghdad, said he was working to set up a Joint Anti-Corruption Council to help Iraq's graft watchdogs work better together.

Poliquin told a news conference in Baghdad that the Iraqi ministry with the most allegations of corruption was the oil ministry, followed by the interior and defence ministries.

''Those are the top three where we see allegations,'' he said.

''But remember, an allegation is simply that. It's an allegation until a case has fully gone through the system.'' Bringing cases to prosecution, however, has proved difficult.

Poliquin said that since the establishment of a Commission on Public Integrity in 2004, around 2,627 cases had been brought to it, of which 450 had moved forward to court.

''(That) has resulted in 80 arrests and from that six formal adjudications,'' Poliquin said.

Transparency International, an independent watchdog that monitors corruption around the world, placed Iraq second from bottom on its 2006 survey of 163 countries.

Critics say many Iraqi ministries are run as fiefdoms of the political party in charge with cronyism and corruption rampant, particularly in the oil sector. A UN-sponsored audit last year found hundreds of millions of dollars of oil revenue wrongly tallied or simply missing entirely in 2005.

SECURITY CHALLENGE Amid sectarian violence that killed more than 34,000 civilians last year, according to UN figures, those who investigate corruption are obvious targets.

Poliquin said security was ''one of the great challenges'' facing anti-corruption bodies.

''The security issue does effect the ability to move cases forward,'' he said, adding that part of his budget would be allocated to providing safe offices for corruption investigators within the fortified international Green Zone in Baghdad.

Poliquin said his office had offered funding for armoured vehicles.

''I think as the security situation improves, or as we assist in getting a more secure environment for these individuals, more cases will be brought forward,'' he said. But violence was not the only obstacle to prosecuting cases.

''One of the more prevalent reasons we're seeing is that when a case moves along ... there is an article that the relevant minister can invoke to basically stop a case,'' he said.

''There are a number of ministers that have done that,'' he said, declining to say which ministers.

''That's part of the law,'' he said. ''If you don't like it, the organisations need to work together to change the law.'' Asked if that amounted to institutionalised corruption, Poliquin said: ''It could be seen as that.'' But, he added, it could also be argued the article was meant to avoid frivolous allegations from crippling official business.

REUTERS MS KP2018

For Daily Alerts
Get Instant News Updates
Enable
x
Notification Settings X
Time Settings
Done
Clear Notification X
Do you want to clear all the notifications from your inbox?
Settings X
X