Iraq...The Drama Of Corruption And Its Danger To Society

Iraq...The Drama Of Corruption And Its Danger To Society

 Iyad Anbar    Corruption scandals in Iraq are very similar to television drama stories, as they both rely on the plot of the novel that makes the viewer follow the events and their developments with passion and wait for their endings.

This is how we in Iraq coexist and interact with news of corruption, its personalities, and its details, and it is never absent from the events of news bulletins and the topics of political talk shows.

In addition, we have come to live with it in every detail of our daily lives, including poor services, deteriorating health conditions, and the routine of daily dealings between citizens and state departments and institutions.

The latest dramatic series of corruption scandals is the return of the “Theft of the Century” case to the forefront, and  the story of its return began with August 14 being set as the date for the trial of the main accused in the case, Nour Zuhair, who failed to appear, so the trial was postponed to the 27th of the month..

 Nour Zuhair, the hero of the drama story of the theft of tax deposits, which became known as the “theft of the century,” chose to attend a television interview with the Iraqi “Al-Sharqiya” channel, to talk about his “oppression” and his denial of the existence of theft or corruption, and described the issue as a “lie.”

But he did not deny the bribes he offered to politicians, media figures, and state employees, confirming to us that this routine in Iraq is the basis of corruption.

 The hero of the series “Theft of the Century” wants to keep the eyes of the Iraqis on monitoring his news, after he circulated news about his being in a traffic accident in Beirut, and  we are preoccupied with interpretations of the “accident,” especially with the trial date approaching.

 Until it became clear that there was no accident, and that it was fabricated to escape the trial date, according to press follow-ups.

 The irony is that we have become so preoccupied with following news of corruption that we have become accustomed to hearing about thefts and corruption deals worth millions and billions of dollars.

 We live in a country where millions of citizens live on social welfare benefits, and these terrifying numbers are close to the budget of countries such as Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

 Prime Minister Muhammad Shiaa Al-Sudani was more frank and clear when he stated at the beginning of his assumption of office, saying that

 “any talk about fighting corruption is absurd and a joke on the chin” if there is no accountability and recovery of funds from those involved in the “theft of the century” scandal.

 It seems that the Prime Minister's statement is the most credible, because so far there has been no resolution of any of the corruption files, and no prosecution of any of those involved.

 Despite this statement, Al-Sudani and his government were involved in the “theft of the century” and pledged to recover the money stolen from the state treasury.

 While this file was in the hands of the judiciary, the first accused (Nour Zuhair) is behind bars.

 Let the Sudanese involve himself in this file to market himself as the one who resolved the most dangerous corruption file in the history of the Iraqi state, and perhaps the largest theft of state funds, and that he was the one who achieved an achievement by settling it.

It later became clear that Nour Zuhair was outside Iraq, without any restrictions on his movement.

He moves between countries and appears in a television interview to describe the theft as “the lie of the century,” that he is a victim of “dirty blackmail,” and that he offered bribes worth millions of dollars. Although he "did not steal state money."

 The television interview in which the main accused of the theft of the century appeared, talking about billions of dinars. It is nothing but a scandal for the entire government system.

 How could this money be vulnerable to theft or fraud, if corruption did not ravage the entire body of the political system?

 This corruption has spread and all actors in the authoritarian system have become involved in it, and are even its founders.

Hence, we no longer need to diagnose and describe corruption by political figures who were directly and indirectly involved in managing the corruption system, and who legitimized the plunder of state resources, which became like a gold mine, with mafias and gangs competing to plunder as much of it as possible.

 Corruption in Iraq reflects a struggle to share the rentier economy between political parties and forces of power and influence, and  thus it has become spider webs.

 It does not stop at the borders of figures in high positions in the state, but rather extends to include political mafias, and figures outside the political description and social classes, who work according to personal relationships with influential government or party figures, or they work at the addresses of “economic offices” affiliated with political parties or armed militias. .

The corruption drama continues, and from time to time there is a new series.

 The latest of which is the exchange of accusations between the government and the House of Representatives about the existence of manipulation worth 15 trillion dinars, which is equivalent to 10 billion dollars, in the budget tables for the year 2024.

 The government directs an accusation against the Presidency of the House of Representatives that the tables sent by it differ from the copy of the tables sent by the government.

 Hence, the Presidency’s approval of the final budget schedules was delayed due to these differences.

  The government addresses the Presidency of the House of Representatives and confirms the existence of three different copies of the schedules:

 the first is printed on paper, and it has fundamental differences compared to the copy sent by the Council of Ministers.

 The second is electronically printed, and has fundamental differences from the Cabinet version and the House of Representatives paper version.

 The issue is not the exchange of communications between the government and Parliament, nor delaying the approval of the budget schedules, the financial allocations of which cannot be released except with the approval of the President of the Republic and their publication in the official newspaper, “Al-Waqa’i al-Iraqiyya.”

 Rather, it is the nature of the relationship between the legislative and executive institutions in managing the state’s resources, which indicates either the presence of manipulation in financial allocations contrary to the will of the government responsible for preparing the federal budget.

 Or there are errors in routine transactions that result in $10 billion, according to statements by members of the House of Representatives.

 In both cases, administrative routine is no different from corruption, because both are manifestations of political corruption.

 Another series of corruption dramas being circulated on news bulletins and social media, its subject is the existence of a “blackmail network” inside the Prime Minister’s Office, where some figures working in important positions in the government palace were arrested and accused of wiretapping the phones of political and security figures, and impersonating politicians and businessmen. And fake news industry.

 Although the judiciary has not resolved these charges, merely acknowledging their existence weakens the government’s credibility in fighting corruption.

 In Iraq, there are official institutions with many names and titles, whose function is to combat corruption, such as: the

      Integrity Commission, the

     Financial Supervision Bureau, the

     Integrity Committee in the House of Representatives, and

     judicial courts specialized in examining corruption cases.

 But corruption in Iraq remains and expands, and corruption has a higher authority than the law that fights it.

There is no country in the world that is devoid of corruption, whether financial or political, but the levels of its presence differ from one country to another.

 When a country like Iraq is at the forefront of the most corrupt countries, here we are faced with a real problem in the political system and the ruling elites that produced this corruption.

 The irony is that everyone agrees on the existence of corruption, and the diagnosis of its causes.

 But there is no clear will to combat it or set limits to it, because everyone has begun to live with it and consider it a natural phenomenon that there is no need to rebel against or fight against.

The danger is not in corruption and its spread, but rather in its penetration into state institutions and its acceptance by citizens and politicians alike.

 Hence, it produces social norms and values, politicians, and a culture that accepts corruption.

 The general rule has become that the corrupt in this country are the majority, and the minority are the non-corrupt.

 Society's view of anyone who holds a political or administrative position is that he is accused of corruption.

 We can imagine the danger to social values ​​when society celebrates the corrupt on official occasions, when they are rotated into high-ranking positions in the state, and the absence of accountability and responsibility for anyone proven involved in cases of theft of public money.

 When there is no accountability for the corrupt, the result is the spread of corruption and the transformation of its personalities into public figures accepted by society.

 As long as the ruling system acknowledges the penetration of corruption into all aspects of the state, and at the same time does not fight it.

 The result is the imposition of corrupt figures as representing the authoritarian system and the political society.     https://economy-news.net/content.php?id=47016