"Corruption, Theft and Integrity News" Posted by Samson at KTFA

KTFA:

Samson: The Iraqi Planning uses the "job number" to detect double salaries

23rd October, 2022

The Iraqi Ministry of Planning announced, on Sunday, that it is working on a survey of ministries, governorates, and entities not affiliated with the ministry to detect double salaries using the so-called "job number".

The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Planning for Administrative Affairs, Azhar Hussein, told Shafaq News, "The government assigned the committee to lead us to work on a survey of all functional sectors in the Iraqi state in various ministries, governorates, and agencies not associated with a ministry," noting that "each employee in the state will have a job number."

She added that "more than 90% of the job numbers were covered, and only some institutions remained, with the exception of the Popular Mobilization Authority," noting that the latter "confirmed its cooperation with the government committee and sending the data to the ministry."

Hussein continued, "There is a periodic change in the job number file in terms of the employee's salary, bonus, promotion, transfer and retirement," stressing that "the database is not on the triple name, surname and workplace of the employee only, but other names are entered in order to boycott the names and numbers, and therefore in the event of the emergence of functional intermarriage, it will appear directly."

Regarding retirees, social welfare and the private sector, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Planning indicated that "these categories are not covered by the job number, noting that "there is an intention to cooperate with the Ministry of Higher Education to give a job number to workers in the private sector in universities and private colleges."  LINK

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Samson:  Integrity reveals 100 "fake and forged" agricultural contracts in Salah al-Din

23rd October, 2022
The Investigation Department of the Federal Integrity Commission revealed the arrest of (4) employees after it was revealed that they added (39) fake agricultural contracts, and tampered with (61) other contracts by increasing their area within the agricultural plan for the wheat crop.

And the department indicated in a statement to the authority, received by / NINA , that the staff of the commission’s investigation office in Salah al-Din, who moved to the Department of Al-Dur Cultivation Division, carried out the process of seizing (4) employees after revealing that they had added (39) fictitious agricultural contracts, and tampered with ( 61) Another contract by increasing its area within the agricultural plan for the wheat crop, indicating that those fictitious contracts and the manipulation of their area benefited from the plan to supply urea fertilizer at an amount of (165,098,690) million dinars.

She added that the field team for following up on the work of the Salah al-Din Tax Department succeeded in carrying out two separate seizures in the department, the first of which resulted in the arrest of an employee of the Real Estate Division red-handed for receiving a bribe from a citizen in flagrante delicto, while during the other operation an accused was arrested illegally tracking transactions.

She explained that, after investigation, follow-up and auditing, the team was able to detect (5) forged medical reports in the Governorate Health Department - Medical Committees Division, noting the arrest of two accused of forging the signatures of the medical committees on those reports.

The department reported that fundamentalist seizure records were organized in the operations that were carried out. Based on judicial notes, and their presentation to the specialized investigative judge, who decided to arrest the accused in the first and fourth operation in accordance with the provisions of Articles (331, 289 and 298) of the Penal Code.  LINK

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Samson, Parliamentary Legal: Successive governments have not implemented anti-corruption laws

23rd October, 2022

On Sunday, the Parliamentary Legal Committee held successive governments responsible for not implementing the laws enacted and enacted in the House of Representatives to combat corruption. 

Committee member Salem Al-Anbaki said in an interview with the "Information" agency, "The new government should coordinate efforts and joint work with the legislative authority in order to activate the laws in force to combat corruption."  

He added that "the laws enacted after 2003 until now have not been applied by successive governments due to the absence of real implementation mechanisms to fight corruption."  He pointed out that "Parliament is determined to put in place clear mechanisms to properly implement future anti-corruption laws to serve the public interest." 

Voices calling for banning the travel of the outgoing caretaker government, Mustafa Al-Kazemi, and some members of his government rose after the corruption cases that emerged, including the theft of tax secretariats.  LINK

Samson:  Alia Nassif: Three of the companies involved in the theft of tax deposits... are fake

23rd October, 2022

Member of Parliament, Alia Nassif, confirmed that three of the companies involved in the theft of fictitious tax deposits were registered last year, calling for determining the course of investigations towards the real accused and their accomplices, and not wasting time hosting people who have nothing to do with the case.

And she said in a statement today: that three of the five fake companies were registered in 2021, and the anti-money laundering official addressed the Registrar of Companies to inquire about the extent of the sobriety of the companies, and he replied that they are sober companies, and from here the disaster began and the companies began the process of looting tax deposits.

Nassif added that the parliamentary committees hosted a series of hosting officials from several bodies and departments, including the head of the customs authority. The Parliamentary Finance Committee also hosted the Director General, who came after him, Samer Abdel Hadi, and he remained in the position for two months, and he is also not related to the case, and therefore we must avoid mixing papers and making investigations derail, and avoid putting the names of departments and people unrelated to the case. LINK

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Samson:  Does the investigation file close by stealing tax deposits?

10/22/2022 22:28:58

 The economic expert, Abdul Rahman Al-Mashadani, suggested closing the file of theft of the funds of the General Authority for Taxes in order to reveal the gates of corruption greater than the theft of the funds of the trusts in the event that the investigation is completed.

  Mashhadani said; For the (Undisclosed) program broadcast by Al-Furat satellite channel tonight: "The companies involved in the theft of tax trust funds were established shortly before the theft and were revealed by the Minister of Oil under pressure from the oil companies that were demanding their deposited money." 

 He added that "the Minister of Oil was briefed on the theft file, followed by the funds of the trusts, and the Rafidain Bank cannot be exempted from stealing money, and that everyone is involved in the theft," noting that "the investigation into this matter may be closed because its completion will reveal portals of corruption greater than the theft of tax money." 

Al-Mashhadani continued, "Huge amounts were deposited in the company's accounts and were withdrawn on the same day," noting that "during 2021 with the currency window, we found that it was one of the reasons for the window to rise to 300 million dollars per day, knowing that the volume of imports to Iraq is fixed and does not change."

The currency window promised "one of the official ways to get money out in the form of hard currency and smuggle it abroad," expressing "astonishment at the central bank's lack of remorse for that."

Al-Mashhadani added, "The money that went to the banks of neighboring countries needs intensive investigations, and some money can be recovered by addressing the banks of the countries, and some of the properties that were purchased with the looted money have not been transferred." Al-Mashhadani concluded by saying, "The task of Prime Minister-designate Muhammad Shia'a Al-Sudani will be difficult to expose corruption files in all ministries, which include dozens of files of corruption and theft."

The Minister of Finance, Ihsan Abdul-Jabbar Agency, had revealed that there was a theft of money in the Ministry of Finance, with no less than 800 million dollars in a specific account in the Rafidain Bank, which was withdrawn in violation of the law. In the same regard, Faleh Al-Sari, a member of the Parliamentary Finance Committee and head of the National State Forces Alliance bloc, called on the Ministry of Finance to reveal the personalities involved in the loss of more than 800 million dollars.

On Sunday, Al-Sari revealed secrets about the theft of tax deposits, which included 3 trillion and 701 billion dinars, while announcing the identity of those involved. He clarified what happened that the sums that were collected through 5 foreign fake companies established in 2021 are now requesting the return of the trust funds, knowing that they did not record any trust amount with the General Tax Authority, but rather by agreement of officials starting from the rank of general manager to the financial department to the assistant financial department to those authorized in the exchange process .

Al-Sari indicated that a large part of the amount of 3 trillion and 701 billion dinars is still inside the country in the form of real estate in Al-Mansour and Al-Harithiya.  LINK