KTFA:

Samson:  Parliamentary Finance talks about the fate of Iraq's budget for 2022

30th May, 2022

Today, Monday, the Parliamentary Finance Committee clarified the fate of the 2022 budget in light of the political crisis and the inability to send the project by the caretaker government.

Committee member Jamal Cougar said in a statement to (Baghdad Today), "If the government is formed quickly, the new government will send the draft budget that was prepared by the caretaker government."

He added, "If the government was not formed this year or was formed late, the 2020 scenario will be repeated, meaning sending a set of financial borrowing laws."  LINK

Samson:  A water well paves the way for a huge oil discovery in Iraq 

29th May, 2022

An informed source at the Ministry of Water Resources stated, on Sunday, that excavation work led to the discovery of oil-generating rocks close to the surface of the earth.

The source told Shafaq News Agency, "A team affiliated with the Ministry of Water Resources, when digging a water well in the Tel Abta area, southwest of the city of Mosul, found hydrocarbons within the sandy rocks in the formation of the hole at a depth of 117 m, which is an indication that the area contains large quantities of unexplored oil." close to the earth's surface.

The source added, "This situation was repeated previously when drilling water wells close to the current well, at a distance of 15 km, an area that has not been explored so far by the oil companies."  LINK

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Samson:  Al-Zamili: The time for dismissal of officials without accountability is over

30th May, 2022

First Deputy Speaker of Parliament Hakim Al-Zamili considered, on Monday, that the time for dismissal of officials without accountability "has ended", while noting that the House of Representatives will legislate in its current session the "Capital" law to bring about a "developmental revolution" in Baghdad.

A statement by Al-Zamili's office, received by Mawazine News, stated that the latter "presided over an expanded meeting of the Parliamentary Services and Reconstruction Committee, during which it hosted the Mayor of Baghdad Ammar Kazem, and the advanced cadre in the secretariat, in the presence of a number of Baghdad deputies, to agree on a common vision to advance the reality of the capital."

Al-Zamili said, according to the statement, that "the time of dismissal of officials without accountability has ended, and that he will personally follow up all files related to the former mayor of Baghdad and referred to the judicial authorities," noting that "the scenario of taking over others will not be repeated and will not absolve them of legal responsibility towards Baghdad," stressing However, "the first steps in the reform phase are to open corruption files and hold the corrupt accountable to stop the waste of public money."

Al-Zamili called for “presenting a vision and an urgent action plan and an achievable strategy for the management of the secretariat and the development of the capital during the coming period, and to expedite the development of treatments for the files and accumulated problems in the water sector, sewage networks, removing traffic jams, treating waste, and rehabilitating the entrances to Baghdad, in addition to abuses and slums.” And others, and giving priority to areas deprived of services and within precise and specific dates to complete the achievement.

The First Deputy confirmed, "The House of Representatives is very keen, during its current session, to legislate the "Capital" law, to grant broader powers to the secretariat and bring about a comprehensive development revolution in Baghdad," expressing "the parliament's support for the secretariat's work at the present time by increasing its allocations and monitoring its disbursement."

As he pointed out, "the need for continuous coordination between the secretariat and the Parliamentary Services and Construction Committee." 

Al-Zamili stressed that "any official or employee who obstructs the work is part of the scourge of corruption, and that the secretariat has a legitimate, legal and moral responsibility to put realistic treatments and provide tangible results for service problems, through real and diligent field work to serve the people."  LINK

Samson:Al-Rasheed Bank of Iraq outside international sanctions after 30 years

29th May, 2022

Al-Rasheed Bank announced, on Sunday, May 29, 2022, the removal of its name from the list of international sanctions of the Charter of the United Nations, which came in accordance with the document issued on April 18 last, as the Sanctions Committee of the Security Council issued a resolution according to which the sanctions that were imposed will end. Since 1990.

According to a report written by Ali Karim Etheeb for Al Jazeera Net, Al-Rasheed Bank is the second largest government bank in Iraq (after Al-Rafidain Bank), which was established in 1988 under Law No. (52) and became a public company under Public Companies Law No. (22) of 1997, and is subject to the bank’s supervision. The Iraqi Central Bank and the Financial Supervision Bureau. Its internal system No. (7) of 1998 set its objectives in supporting the national economy in the field of commercial banking, investing money and providing financing to various sectors in accordance with development plans and planning decisions, as it has 151 branches spread throughout Iraq.

The economic sanctions imposed on Iraq during the nineties of the last century created major problems at all levels, the most important of which were the banks' lack of infrastructure, large debts on banks, and dead assets that lost their real value, some of which extend to the Iran-Iraq war.

On the reason for the UN sanctions against Al-Rasheed Bank, its former general manager Abdul Hadi Sadiq said that the Security Council, in accordance with the resolutions it issued in 1990, has imposed seizures on the balances of Iraqi financial institutions, including Al-Rasheed Bank, since the Iraqi army entered Kuwait in August 1990.

Sadiq said that the balances of Al-Rasheed Bank when imposing the seizure decision were relatively few because the bank began its actual work at the beginning of the year 1989, according to Al-Jazeera Net. He pointed out that government banks, including Al-Rasheed, did not have the opportunity before the Iraqi army entered Kuwait in order to maneuver their financial balances, because the decision to enter at the time was a high degree of secrecy.

He pointed out that lifting the sanctions would prevent Al-Rasheed Bank from being exposed to any risks after ascertaining the obsolescence of any claims from the beneficiaries of the open credits by the bank.

The media official at Al-Rasheed Bank, Amal Al-Shuwaili, said that deleting the name of the bank from the list of international sanctions of the United Nations Charter is an advanced step that will move banking dealings to levels that have long moved away from it and from the ranks of advanced banks in terms of recent transactions that Arab and international banks have followed.

The financial advisor to the Prime Minister, Mazhar Muhammad Salih, believes that the decision to lift the ban allows the large state-owned commercial bank to practice international banking through several tools. 

Saleh defined these tools by opening documentary credits to finance foreign trade for the private sector by restoring its banking relations with the chain of banking senders in the world. 

He added that the bank will enjoy the confidence of the global banking system and international financial markets, specifically by collecting supporting credit lines - to finance foreign trade for its customers from the Iraqi private sector at the lowest costs, due to the removal of one of the most important banking risks, which is political risks, noting that the decision will allow the bank to open its branches outside the country, Especially in important countries that are centers of international banking and related financial transactions.   LINK

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Samson:  Recovering Iraq's smuggled and stolen money... Integrity tells "important" details

30th May, 2022

The operations of recovering money, accused and convicted of corruption cases from outside Iraq face many challenges that can be said that they are not confined to the local side only, but also go beyond it to the international side, which is almost the most difficult in the face of the tireless efforts provided by the relevant authorities, foremost of which is the recovery department in the Commission Federal integrity, then, is the body responsible by law for collecting information, following up on wanted suspects, and recovering smuggled corruption funds.

It is in order to achieve that goal, which no longer represents a legal requirement only, but also becomes a public demand. It has developed plans, work programs and projects in cooperation with other concerned parties at home and abroad to ensure that its noble goals are achieved, general managers and others despite the issuance of judicial rulings against them by the Iraqi judiciary. The content of those objections raised by the custodial countries for the wanted persons are for reasons including their protection of that required by granting him their nationality or pushing them with the presence of political motives to retrieve him.

These objections may sometimes be based on technical reasons such as the lack of laws in that state allowing the extradition of those on its lands to other countries, or the incompleteness of these objections The delivery file according to its point of view, despite the fact that the procedures for the files were completed by the claimant.

Judge Al-Saadi noted that "the commission, in order to overcome these challenges and obstacles, did not stand idly by, but rather worked to find unconventional means in order to succeed in its national efforts to recover money and those convicted in corruption cases.

The outcomes of the conference held in Baghdad, which was at the forefront of finding non-traditional means to recover funds in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a number of the commission’s departments,” noting that “the commission began working on activating government support on the political and diplomatic sides to follow up on the files of recovering corruption funds smuggled outside Iraq.

While the laws of some countries will be discussed and studied in depth in order to seize corruption funds abroad, and to communicate with the relevant international authorities in order to recover them.

He stressed that "the commission has moved effectively at all levels, whether regional or international, in order to form an international bloc that pressures countries that refrain from cooperating in the field of money recovery and those convicted of corruption cases.

This was demonstrated through its active participation in international and regional forums," revealing "presenting a proposal to organize an international conference for bodies and institutions specialized in combating financial and administrative corruption in the capital, Baghdad, in order for the participants in the conference to adopt the Iraq project calling for the formation of that international pressure bloc, activating work in it and implementing it on the ground.

Al-Saadi stressed by saying: "We are determined to hold that conference in the capital, Baghdad, and the task of preparing and coordinating its organization was entrusted to a committee composed of a number of specialized departments, in coordination with a number of international sponsoring and contributing organizations."

Regarding the level of international cooperation that the commission has sensed in the field of recovering funds and wanted fugitives outside Iraq, the head of the commission indicated that “the response to requests for legal assistance related to inventorying smuggled corruption funds and their recovery to Iraq and the pursuit of international wanted persons varies from one country to another,” adding that “the level of countries’ response to that the demands are related to several things, for example, the extent to which the laws of the country required to provide assistance or surrender are related to the terms of international and regional agreements, and the matter is also related to the level of relations and exchange of interests between them and our country, in addition to the level of diplomatic effort expended. The requests for international cooperation in this field vary from one country to another and cannot be evaluated in general."

The head of the commission classified the funds required to be recovered from outside Iraq, which fall within the jurisdiction of the commission’s recovery department,” noting that “the commission’s effective law No. 30 of 2011, as amended, entrusted the retrieval department with the task of following up and recovering money and corruption proceeds smuggled out of Iraq after the year 2003, as for the funds the looted items, which date back to the era of the former regime, i.e. before 2003, are within the competence of the Fund for the Recovery of Iraq's Funds from Abroad, based on Law No. 9 of 2012 as amended.

He pointed out that the approximate number of smuggled funds and proceeds of corruption, which were determined by judicial decisions issued by the trial courts, the penal courts, and the courts of first instance (which obligate the fugitive convict to pay the amounts of damage he inflicted with public money or which he unlawfully seized; to the party affected by his criminal act He explained that “those sums are called: the money ordered to be recovered, which can be roughly transferred as follows:

In his interview, Judge Al-Saadi touched on "the recent success that was achieved in recovering more than nine million dollars in the case of the convicted (Zina Saud), a former employee of the Baghdad Municipality," pointing to "the tireless efforts that, through continuous follow-up, led to the recovery of those funds, reviewing the details of the case that It started in 2009, after the commission revealed that the convict had smuggled money outside Iraq, specifically to the Kingdom of Jordan and Lebanon, and for her sake, issued an arrest warrant against her.

The sentence includes life imprisonment and confiscation of her movable and immovable property.

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