Some "Thursday News" Posted by Samson at KTFA 12-10-2020

KTFA:

Samson:  Parliament's integrity announces the referral of 400 corruption files, some of them relating to "senior officials"

10:26 - 10/12/2020

A member of the Parliamentary Integrity Committee, Sabah Taloubi Al-Ugaili, revealed, on Thursday, that 200 corruption files had been referred to the Integrity Commission during the past period, indicating that there are hundreds of corruption files being investigated.

Taloubi said in a statement to "the information", "We have referred more than 200 large and serious corruption files, some of them related to senior officials, to the Integrity Commission," indicating that "the total of the files that were referred to the Integrity Commission during the current parliamentary session are more than 400 corruption files, most of them were not completed Until now".

He added that "there are other files that have been referred by other deputies," noting that "some of the files referred are related to billions being wasted, and the government has been able to recover these funds."

The Integrity Committee in the House of Representatives revealed, on Wednesday, that files were opened in the committee concerning the ministries of trade, health, oil and industry.   LINK

Samson:  Deputy: The Al-Kazemi government has failed to track down the corrupt people fleeing the country through "Interpol"

14:06 - 10/12/2020

MP Amer Al-Fayez confirmed, on Thursday, that the Al-Kazemi government had failed to track down the corrupt fugitives outside the country through the International Interpol.

Al-Fayez said in an interview with Al-Maalouma, “The Al-Kazemi government has made great promises to fight the most dangerous scourges in the country, which represent corruption permeating state institutions and causing great damage to the national economy, especially since the amount of stolen money is very large.”

Al-Fayez added, “The Al-Kazemi government has not achieved anything in the context of fighting corruption in the country, but has not recovered any money that was looted, and this represents a very big failure in addition to that it was unable to arrest many corrupt politicians and officials who fled outside the country and they swelled huge sums of money through Interpol and the rest Other institutions, stressing that fighting corruption is one of the priorities of the government and the most important points for which it was formed, because preserving public money is a national task that must be addressed with force and firmness.

And suffer Iraq has very high rates of corruption, amid international reports of the smuggling of huge sums of money out of the country by corrupt officials and officials.  LINK

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Samson:  Al-Sumaida’i: The currency auction is a smuggling of the dollar and its corruption goes beyond simple sales

12/09/2020 23:27:28

 An independent politician, Ibrahim Al-Sumaidaie, described the auction of selling the currency as "smuggling."

Al-Sumaidaie said {to the Euphrates News} that "the currency auction is a smuggling of currency and is based on covering the sale of the dinar for the purpose of import and credit." He pointed out that "the latest statistics of the Central Statistics Agency revealed differences in the currency auction that exceeded the $ 26 billion without basis, even in the amount of $19 million for the purpose of import. Most of its invoices are forged and the Central Bank evades responsibility."

Al-Sumaida’i added, "The only solution to stop the bleeding of currency selling is to inject the dollar in real and go to savings accounts," noting that "the problem of this auction has existed since 2010." The independent politician concluded, "The Central Bank of Iraq deluded people that there is no alternative to the currency auction, and it is he who admitted the existence of 45 trillion dinars outside the monetary policy of Iraq, and the corruption of the auction went beyond simple direct sales to specialization."

The representative of the parliamentary wisdom bloc affiliated with the coalition of Iraqis, Khaled Al-Jushami, revealed that Iraq lost 240 million dinars per month in the currency auction. Al-Ghashami said in a press statement, that the Central Bank of Iraq sells 4 billion dollars a month, even if we divide it by 200 in 5 working days, it equals one billion dollars in four weeks, and if we multiply the 4 billion dollars by 6, the result is 240 billion dinars per month for the Iraqi state from the auction selling the currency. He added that the profit goes to people in private banks, not to government banks, in order to return to the state treasury.

It is noteworthy that the member of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, Faleh Al-Sari, collected signatures to submit a request to question the Governor of the Central Bank of Iraq regarding suspicions in the currency auction.

 In the year 2019, the Central Bank sold $ 44 billion in hard currency in a currency auction, mostly intended to cover the import of materials and goods that the country needs, stabilize the price of the Iraqi dinar and prevent inflation, according to bank data.

However, as economists say, the volume of Iraqi imports reached 18 billion dollars, and they warn of "currency leakage" outside Iraq due to "corruption" in the currency auction in the country. In light of this, the Supreme Judicial Council announced that it would initiate the investigation of the documents of the joint banks in the foreign currency sale window.

A statement to inform the judiciary stated that the investigation court competent to combat money laundering and economic crime crimes responds to the request of the Central Bank and conducts the investigation with documents and documents submitted by the participating banks in the foreign currency sale and purchase window to verify its validity and compliance with the law. LINK

Samson:  Iraq is preparing memoranda of understanding with Britain in the economy and trade

12/09/2020 22:14:00

 The Secretary-General of the Council of Ministers, Hamid Naim Al-Ghazi, stressed on Wednesday the Iraqi government's interest in strengthening relations between Baghdad and London in various fields.

A statement by his media office said in a statement that Al-Furat News Agency received a copy of that Al-Ghazi "confirmed during his meeting with the United Kingdom Ambassador in Baghdad, Stephen Hickey, and his accompanying delegation of the Iraqi government's interest in strengthening relations between Baghdad and London in the economic and commercial fields and exchanging security information in combating Organized crime."

He pointed out that “the Iraqi government has assigned a government team to follow up the outcomes of the Iraqi delegation’s visit to London recently, after a team of relevant authorities was formed to prepare a special draft of bilateral memoranda of understanding in the fields of economy and trade, as well as the possibility of supporting the Ministry of Health’s effort to confront the Corona pandemic."

And the British ambassador expressed, "The UK's readiness to provide advice and support in the field of combating terrorism and organized crime, and that it is ready to provide all capabilities for political and security stability in Iraq, as well as to expedite the provision of vaccines for Coronavirus."   LINK

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Samson:  An Egyptian minister reveals an "Iraqi, Egyptian, Jordanian" agreement related to the economy

12/10/2020 17:35:07

The Minister of Planning, Khaled Battal Najm, discussed with his Somali counterpart Hala Saeed ways to enhance aspects of joint cooperation between the two countries in various fields.

A statement of his office, of which Al-Furat News received a copy, stated, "The Minister of Planning indicated during the meeting that took place in Cairo, today, Thursday, to the strategic importance of the relations between the two brotherly countries, and the momentum and remarkable development these relations witnessed in the last stage, especially in light of The participation of Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi in the tripartite summit between Iraq, Egypt and Jordan, which was held in Amman last August.

The Minister of Planning pointed out, "what the summit dealt with in terms of discussing ways to enhance joint tripartite cooperation in various fields between the three countries, especially those related to energy, electrical connectivity, infrastructure, and food, and to strengthen areas of economic, commercial and investment cooperation, with the aim of establishing a next stage of strategic integration between countries." The three are based on common development goals."

For her part, Al-Saeed noted the "implementation measures that have started in Egypt, Iraq and Jordan to increase the rates of trade and investment," revealing "the agreement of the ministers of trade and industry in the three countries to develop new plans and mechanisms to activate economic cooperation and joint trade exchange in order to achieve integration according to schedule A specific time frame with the participation of the Egyptian, Iraqi and Jordanian private sectors.   LINK