Wed 03 June 2020:
Corruption on Iraq’s borders is robbing the government of its customs income, a member of the parliamentary financial committee has warned.
According to Member of the Parliamentary Financial Committee Magda Al-Tamimi 90 per cent of Iraq’s customs revenue goes to corrupt people instead of reaching state coffers, Rudaw reported yesterday.
In the interview, she referred to “forgery of 174,000 state properties”, noting that the teams from the Office of Financial Supervision and inspectors had been informed. State properties have been transferred into the names of individuals, she explained, with 300-400 property records now missing from the Iraqi Registration Department.
“Mainly four parties get benefits from the borders of Iraq; the Central Bank, parties, merchants, terrorist financiers,” she said.
After the defeat of Deash in 2017, corruption is now the main threat to Iraq’s stability.
According to a report published by Chatham House, this situation alienates the population from its ruling elite and drives young people to protest to demand change.
Though the new prime minister has intervened in some instances, security forces have continued to arrest and shoot young demonstrators.
“We reached a level of injustice we could no longer take. For every action, there is a reaction,” explained one civil society activist.
The alienation this has created has driven a series of mass demonstrations in 2011, 2015, 2018 and 2019. In each wave, protestors have come onto the streets demanding the political system that has given rise to this endemic corruption be radically reformed.
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