Iraqi News Monday AM 1-17-22
Iraqi News Monday AM 1-17-22
TLM724 Administrator BondLady’s Corner
Demanding Action To Release Frozen Assets Abroad
Monday 17 January 2022 200 Baghdad: Mustafa Al-Hashemi A banking expert said that Iraq has not completely escaped, on the financial and banking level, from the sanctions under the Charter of the United Nations, which were imposed on it in 1991 due to the invasion of Kuwait, as all that is in the matter is that it has moved from Chapter VII to VI, which came in Article 38 of it. “The Security Council, if requested by all the disputants, may submit to them its recommendations with a view to resolving the conflict peacefully, without prejudice to the provisions of Articles 33 to 37 of the aforementioned chapter.
The expert, Abdul-Hussein Al-Mandhari stressed, “the necessity of moving on this issue to resolve the country’s debts and liberate the frozen funds and balances, in order to restore its banking activity abroad by reactivating the work of the Rafidain and Al-Rasheed bank branches spread in several countries.”
The UN Compensation Committee was formed in 1991, obligated Iraq to pay $52.4 billion in compensation to individuals, companies, governmental organizations and others who incurred losses resulting directly from the invasion of Kuwait.
Al-Mandhari added to “Al-Sabah” that “there is a set of steps that must be taken by the ministries of foreign affairs and finance, along with the Central Bank, to move at the diplomatic level and discuss debt settlement for creditors, due to the need to be freed from the constraint of external debt and to restore sovereignty over funds. Iraq.”
And he indicated that "the steps are to invite the creditor countries to the Paris Club for the purpose of settling it, or to negotiate directly with them to schedule it outside the club, or to ask them to exempt Iraq from paying it."
The banking expert stated that “Britain acquired all the Iraqi government financial assets with it, and acted on its own by granting individuals and companies exaggerated compensation, without allowing the Iraqi defense lawyer to interfere in the matter, and also closed the Rafidain Bank branch in London and the closure continues so far, pointing to The presence of the accounts of the disbanded military industrialization and the Ministry of Defense in the branches of the Rafidain and Al-Rasheed banks abroad were the main reasons for the acquisition.
Al-Mandhari pointed out that "Ernst & Young bought 15 percent of Iraq's debts and compensated the creditors with rates ranging from 80 to 90 percent of their debts."
It is worth noting that the External Debt Department in the Ministry of Finance is one of the departments of the Public Debt Department in the Ministry, which is responsible for following up on the settlement of Iraq’s foreign debt, by entering all debt data, which have been settled with countries and commercial creditors under bilateral agreements, and settlement offers in the database.
The data that has adopted the DMFAS system, the submission of financial and statistical reports, the preparation of estimates, which are required by the federal budget each year, and the payment of the amounts, which are realized by the Government of Iraq in accordance with bilateral agreements and settlement offers.
According to the section, and for the purpose of facilitating the task of dealing with Iraq’s foreign debts, it was agreed to classify them into 3 groups represented by the debts of the Paris Club countries and the debts of non-member countries of the club, as well as the debts of commercial creditors (the private sector).
According to the website of the Ministry of Finance, one of the duties of the department is also to follow up on the settlement of the debts of the remaining countries that are not members of the Paris Club and the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and foreign advisors to the Ministry of Finance, in addition to following up on the remaining commercial debt settlement procedures for the foreign private sector, which were not included in the Previous settlement offers or those offers rejected.
The head of the Committee of Financial Experts, Dr. Abdul Basit Turki, had called earlier for “the move of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the concerned authorities to urge the formulation of a draft resolution that includes removing Iraq from the provisions of Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations in a systematic way.” Complete".
He noted the need for the upcoming decision to stipulate “protecting Iraq from any claims related to the Kuwait war compensation, whether it is individual claims or filing lawsuits related to compensation,” calling for “the annulment of all decisions that resulted from the war.”
Kuwait".
Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations is concerned with actions that take place in cases of threats to peace and the occurrence of aggression, and the chapter contains 13 articles, including Article 44, which states that “if the Security Council decides to use force, before it is requested by a member who is not represented in it, If the armed forces are provided in fulfillment of the obligations stipulated in Article 43, he shall invite this member to participate, if he so desires, in the decisions he issues with regard to the employment of units of the armed forces of that member.” LINK
Significant Increase In Central Bank Sales Of Hard Currency
Economie| 02:50 - 01/17/2022 Baghdad - Mawazine News, the Central Bank of hard currency sales rose, today, Monday, to more than 212 million dollars.
And the Central Bank auction for the sale and purchase of foreign currencies witnessed a rise in dollar sales to reach 212 million and 729 thousand and 735 dollars, covered by the bank at a base exchange rate of 1460 dinars per dollar.
Most of the bank's sales went to enhance balances abroad in the form of remittances and credits, which amounted to 164 million and 249 thousand and 753 dollars, while the remaining amount of 48 million and 480 thousand dollars went in cash.
This has been 27 banks to fulfill requests to enhance balances abroad, and 19 banks to meet cash requests, in addition to 189 intermediary companies. https://www.mawazin.net/Details.aspx?jimare=181881
Relative Stability Of The Dollar Exchange Rates In The Local Markets
Economie| 11:07 - 17/01/2022 Baghdad - Mawazine News The dollar exchange rates witnessed, on Monday, relative stability in the main stock exchange and local markets in the capital, Baghdad.
Today, the dollar exchange rate on the Central Kifah Stock Exchange in Baghdad was 148,100 dinars, for each $100 bill.
The prices of buying and selling the dollar also stabilized in exchange companies and local markets in Baghdad, where the selling price amounted to 148,500 dinars, for each denomination of 100 dollars, while the purchase prices amounted to 147,500 dinars, for each paper denominations of 100 dollars.
https://www.mawazin.net/Details.aspx?jimare=181864
Economist To / Nina /: Iraq Will Witness Upcoming Economic Crises With The Steady Increase In The Population
Sunday 16 January 2022 11:44 | economic Number of readings: 64 Baghdad / NINA / - The economic expert, Nabil Al-Marsoumi, confirmed that: Iraq will witness upcoming economic crises with the steady increase in the population.
He told the National Iraqi News Agency ( NINA ) that: Assuming that oil prices remain above their current levels, Iraq will face in the coming years if the same economic approach remains economic crises thanks to the large population increase that will reach the level of 50 million after ten years.
Al-Marsoumi added that: With the increase in the population of working age, job seekers will increase, and Iraq’s need for many financial resources to spend on the basic needs of the population, such as water, electricity and other basic needs./End 3 https://ninanews.com/Website/News/Details?Key=950856
360 Billion Dollars Worth Of Corruption Costs In Iraq
Posted On 2022-01-17 By Sotaliraq Wasting money in projects and evaluating them by multiples of their real value is a scourge that has eaten up a lot of Iraq’s budgets and has very negative effects on its economy and infrastructure and affected the level and number of service projects implemented, and its effects are still striking deeply, and the country’s governorates are paying dearly for it.
The Presidency of the Republic’s preparation of the Corruption Revenue Recovery Act constituted an opportunity to pursue the money smuggled abroad through the corrupt, who took advantage of these projects for illegal enrichment, a condition of its legislation. coming.
Unfinished And Unfinished Projects
Former MP Falah Al-Khafaji says that huge amounts of money were wasted on unfinished projects in most governorates.
He explains that "large sums were wasted on projects that were not completed and others that were not implemented, and the evidence for this is that we have projects in Babylon from the years 2008, 2009, 2011 that could have had a positive impact on the province, but unfortunately they were not implemented."
He added, "The Babylon Provincial Council project has wasted 16 billion dinars since 2010 and work has stopped and it must be referred for investment rather than its survival and extinction."
He added, "Most of the provinces, such as Babylon, Muthanna and Dhi Qar, are very poor, and with any rain that floods their streets, this issue is borne by the governors who did not do justice to the provinces, while Karbala province, when we enter it now, we find a big difference at the level of work, and now Karbala is starting to appear beautiful."
He pointed out that "many of the stolen sums were leaked outside Iraq and deposited in foreign banks through corrupt people, including ministers and personalities. If Interpol was activated well and Iraq had good relations with the countries of the world, it is possible to return that money and its value can contribute to the reconstruction of Iraq."
Demand For Legal
Anti-corruption expert Saeed Moussa says, “According to the government statement, the amount of money wasted as a result of corruption amounts to 300 billion dollars, and after that I stated that we are looking for an amount of 360 billion dollars, which is the costs of corruption in fake and lagging investment projects with the costs of price inflation in speculation. Estimating the prices of goods supplied to the government.
He added, "The process of recovering and recovering looted funds is a strenuous process and may take many years, in addition to the costs of prosecution, because the looted and smuggled money enters the economies of the sanctuary countries," stressing "the importance of focusing on taking preventive measures that prevent corruption."
And he stated, "The best practices for establishing a fund to recover stolen money and assets is to direct this recovered money towards public services in sectors that touch the public's daily life, such as health, municipality, education and human development in training and rehabilitation without entering this money into the public treasury."
He pointed out, "The vast majority of infrastructure projects, including sewage, are surrounded by suspicions of corruption from referral to receiving projects, and as it appears, they were not implemented in accordance with quality standards and performance efficiency, in addition to the lack of specialization of many implementing companies and their technical and financial eligibility."
He called on the responsible authorities to legislate a law for the implementation of government contracts, projects and procurement, with the establishment of a reconstruction council in accordance with a clear strategic vision that can be implemented and with a specific time limit that can be monitored, followed up and measured.
Expert: More Than A Trillion Dinars, The Volume Of Wasted Amounts
In turn, the expert in corruption affairs, Muhammad Rahim, explained that “the money wasted on fake projects is estimated at between 25-40% of the general budget, for each country at the regional level and not only in Iraq. For the oil and gas-producing governorates, where this money is estimated at more than one trillion dinars until 2019 according to the reports of the regulatory authorities in Iraq.
He continued, "There are problems in the Ministry of Finance about the mechanism of disbursing this money in the governorates, due to the failure to settle the legal status of the previously received amounts for several years, in addition to the fact that there is a large door to wasting money through contracts for licensing rounds and the issue of inflating costs, as well as the fictitious projects that Iraq pays its money to foreign companies,
so as a natural result, the wasted money ranges between 6 and 10 times the prescribed amounts, because when the corrupt official wants to steal 10 million dinars, he concludes a contract or deal in the amount of 100 million dinars in order to cover the corruption deal he concluded to obtain The private benefit and the contracted project may be the country or entity to which it belongs that is not in dire need of this project, and there are projects that meet the needs of the most important that he left.”
And on how to recover the money, he explained, “The work to recover the looted funds is through international cooperation and bilateral agreements with the countries in which these funds are located,” stressing that “Iraq is serious about this work, using all the tools available to it through the Arab Network to Promote Integrity and Combat Corruption. As well as its membership in the United Nations Convention against Corruption.
He pointed out, "The recovery of looted funds from Iraq will contribute to the development of infrastructure and help provide job opportunities in society, so Iraq must implement the Stolen Fund Recovery Law, similar to a number of countries, so that the law includes disbursing the recovered funds to infrastructure projects in poor areas and not Return the money to the Ministry of Finance, because this step will encourage the community to engage in the process of fighting corruption and supporting integrity.”
He pointed out, "The deterioration of infrastructure projects and their failure to sustain and maintain them comes due to rampant corruption in service institutions," describing them as a "big disaster", adding that "a rich country like Iraq does not have the most basic services for living, such as drinking water, electric power and electricity networks. Sanitation due to corruption and waste.
Cancellation Of High Spending Doors
Meanwhile, the economic expert Bassem Antoine said that the previous parliament's decision to abolish the provincial councils stopped a great reason for wasting money, no less dangerous than corruption in projects.
In his speech, he said that "spending on the salaries of provincial council members formed a large number on the state budget, reaching 208 billion dinars annually, and each member has 3 wheels and 6 members of protection."
He added, "The abolition of this device and other redundant and useless devices will provide the budget with large sums that can be used in the real development process, providing these amounts to the state budget and employing the unemployed." LINK
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