Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Iraq is missing billions due to corruption?

Sky News (link is video and text) reports that a Baghdad bus bombing has claimed 3 lives and left over 14 injured late yesterday. Alsumaria notes that 3 shops belonging to Sahwa members were bombed around Tikrit today. In other violence, All Iraqi News notes that the presidency of Iraq has ratified executions for 25 people.


As if the ongoing political crisis in Iraq couldn't be more convoluted, Dar Addustour reports Ahmed Chalabi is charging billions are missing from the national budget. Al Rafidayn notes he has what he claims is a detailed, three page report documenting the disappearance. The document is said to be damning for Nouri al-Maliki -- whether that's because Nouri should have known what allegedly was taking place because he was prime minister or whether Nouri is allegedly personally implicated isn't clear at this point. It is said to demonstrate how Nouir's Council of Ministers weakend bills that would have provided needed oversight into the way ministries handled money.  Still on the issue of corruption, Alsumaria reports that Parliament's Integrity Committee has issued a three-year prsion sentence for Ahmed al-Barak who had been over property disputes. Dar Addustour adds that the Chair of the Committee, Bahaa al-Araji, also announced an arrest warrant had been issued for a former police chief of Karbala (Major General Raed Shakir).  In addition, All Iraqi News reports that Parliament's Services Committee has issued a recommendation that three Ministers be removed from their posts for failure to spend 75% of their allocated budgets.  As for personal finances?  Al Mada reports the Integrity Commission is bothered by the continued lack of self-disclosure on the part of many officials.  Only 82% of Cabinet Ministers are in compliance with the disclosure laws.  And if you're wondering what US taxdollars do in Iraq, they launch rumors -- as the article notes -- of personal wealth among the politicians.  Al Mada reports that people are talking about a report the US Embassy in Bagdhad supposedly has on the personal wealth of various Iraqi politicians.


Nouri al-Maliki was named prime minister-designate in November 2010.  Per the Constitution, he had 30 days to name a Cabinet.  This is confusing to some in the press.  The 30-day deadline? That's the full Cabinet. There's no point in a deadline if it's not the full Cabinet.  Nouri failed to do that but -- due to the Erbil Agreement and an ineffective Iraqi president -- Nouri was moved from prime minister-designate to prime minister as December 2010 was coming to a close.  Nouri has never nominated people to head the security ministries.  All this time later, they still remain vacant.  All Iraqi News reports that tribal leaders from Anbar, Maysan, Najaf and Nineveh provinces met in Baghdad today and they called on the government to fill those vacancies.  Specifically, they want Saadoun al-Dulaymi to be the Minister of Defense.  Nouri has tagged him "acting defense minister."  There is no such post and the tribal leaders are aware of that.  Unless Nouri nominates someone whom the Parliament votes to confirm, there is no Minister.  Once and if they are confirmed, the person is a Minister and they can be independent because Nouri can't fire them by himself.  Parliament has to vote the Minister out of office.  The creation of 'acting' ministers allows Nouri to control those posts because people in them have to do as he instructs or he removes them.  They have not been confirmed by Parliament so they have no protection and they are not ministers.

Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi met with the United Kingdom's new Ambassador to Iraq, Paul Simon Collins, and the two discussed a number of issues.  All Iraqi News reports that along with discussing ways to strengthen ties between their two countries, the two discussed the need for some stability in Iraq.

Kitabat reports that the National Alliance is rushing to prepare a paper -- 'by' the Reform Committee -- which will, they hope, circumvent a call to withdraw confidence in Nouri.  Supposedly the National Alliance is attempting to work in many points from the Erbil Agreement. Al Mada notes that the Commitee is planning to send a delegation to the KRG in the hopes of garnering support for their paper.  The Reform Committee has had little serious analysis in the press.  One noteable exception would be  Mustafa Habib (Niqash) who addresses some of the issues:


Firstly, there are problems that have to do with agreements between the feuding political blocs about which positions certain high ranking politicians would fill; this included discussion of the vacant seats in certain important ministries, that al-Maliki was occupying in the interim.
Another involved the powers of the federal court and yet another had to do with relations between the Iraqi Parliament and the Iraqi Cabinet, or executive branch; relations were strained with Parliament and ministers often coming to different conclusions. And finally there was the problem of how to balance the demands of the Iraqi Constitution with all of the above.
Despite what appear to be good intentions, there is no doubt that al-Maliki's opponents do not trust him any more than they did before. There has been plenty of press coverage and public relations work on al-Maliki's behalf but the parties who wanted to oust him don't think he is serious about the alleged reforms.
"This call for reform is nothing more than a political manoeuvre and an attempt to gain more time," Hani Ashour, an adviser to the opposition Iraqiya coalition, told NIQASH. The essence of the current political crisis is the fact that al-Maliki has not honoured the Erbil agreement, under which he formed this government."
The so-called Erbil agreement was formulated in Erbil to end a nine month dispute over who should run the government following disputed 2010 elections. It gave al-Maliki the right to form a government if he met certain conditions and gave his electoral opponents certain high powered jobs; basically it was a power sharing deal.
The fact that al-Maliki has done almost nothing to honour that deal doesn't give his opponents much faith that he will change now.


Al Rafidayn reports that National Dialogue Front head and Iraqiya member, Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq states that Iraqiya and the Kurdistan Alliance are moving forward with their plans to question Nouri before Parliament.  al-Mutlaq is quoted stating his amazement over the sensation in some quarters over this since Iraq is a constitutional democracy and questioning is detailed in the Constitution. He also again denied rumors that he has replaced Ayad Allawi as head of Iraqiya.  All Iraqi News noted yesterday that a deputy for Iraqiya also confirmed that they are putting together questions and moving towards questioning Nouri before the Parliament.

In 16 days, the Olympics kick off in London and Iraq will be sending 8 athletes to compete.  However, that's not only the only sports news out of Iraq this week.  Alsumaria reports that Iraq's Football Association has just announced that they will be creating the first women's football league in Iraq. 



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