Shortly before Iraqi central bank governor Sinan al-Shabibi was fired on
Oct. 16, his soon-to-be replacement charged, in essence, that Iraq's economy is among the most corrupt on the planet.
Abdul Basit Turki al-Sae'ed, now Iraq's acting central bank governor, is simultaneously the head of the country's Supreme Audit Board. In September, he led an audit of central bank currency auctions that convinced him that $800 million is "transferred illegally under false pretenses" outside of the country every week, according to the latest report from the US government's Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR).
Mr. Shabibi was fired by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki shortly afterward.
The claim is staggering, even for a country whose politicians and government agencies are generally acknowledged to be among the most corrupt in the world. The Transparency International's 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index ranked Iraq 175th out of 182 countries (Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Myanmar, North Korea, and Somalia were the only countries deemed more corrupt). If Abdul Basit got his figures right, $38.4 billion is illegally laundered and sent abroad every year. For comparison's sake, that's 30 percent of Iraq's annual GDP, and 65 percent of the $60 billion US taxpayers have spent on reconstruction of the country since 2003.
There is no question that huge amounts of Iraq's oil revenue and related contracting are flowing into the pockets of senior politicians and their political parties. Contracts related to government work and the oil business are frequently inflated and awarded without competition to the friends and relatives of Iraqi leaders. Still, taking an $800 million bite every week out of national revenue is an astonishing accomplishment that points to far more than inflated contracts. It's hard to see how this could happen without revenue from oil exports being more or less directly diverted to personal, rather than government, accounts.
Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Backchannels/2012/1101/Report-800-million-is-snuck-out-of-Iraq-each-week
Abdul Basit Turki al-Sae'ed, now Iraq's acting central bank governor, is simultaneously the head of the country's Supreme Audit Board. In September, he led an audit of central bank currency auctions that convinced him that $800 million is "transferred illegally under false pretenses" outside of the country every week, according to the latest report from the US government's Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR).
Mr. Shabibi was fired by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki shortly afterward.
The claim is staggering, even for a country whose politicians and government agencies are generally acknowledged to be among the most corrupt in the world. The Transparency International's 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index ranked Iraq 175th out of 182 countries (Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Myanmar, North Korea, and Somalia were the only countries deemed more corrupt). If Abdul Basit got his figures right, $38.4 billion is illegally laundered and sent abroad every year. For comparison's sake, that's 30 percent of Iraq's annual GDP, and 65 percent of the $60 billion US taxpayers have spent on reconstruction of the country since 2003.
There is no question that huge amounts of Iraq's oil revenue and related contracting are flowing into the pockets of senior politicians and their political parties. Contracts related to government work and the oil business are frequently inflated and awarded without competition to the friends and relatives of Iraqi leaders. Still, taking an $800 million bite every week out of national revenue is an astonishing accomplishment that points to far more than inflated contracts. It's hard to see how this could happen without revenue from oil exports being more or less directly diverted to personal, rather than government, accounts.
Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Backchannels/2012/1101/Report-800-million-is-snuck-out-of-Iraq-each-week
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