Leaked State Department Report: Corruption rampant in Iraq, Maliki preventing investiagations

Left: An Iraqi government anti-corruption poster aimed at civil servants reads: You can say no. The bags of money are labeled favoritism, bribery, rigging, mediocrity, and burglary.

Report Reveals Corruption in Iraqi Government

State Department investigators in Iraq have concluded that the government of Nouri al-Maliki is not capable of even rudimentary enforcement of anti-corruption laws. The investigators also say that corrupt civil servants with connections to the government are seen as untouchable, and that employees of Iraq's watchdog Commission on Public Integrity have been murdered in the line of duty.

The U.S. investigators lay out their conclusions in a draft report obtained by NPR's Corey Flintoff in Baghdad. The report was marked "sensitive, but unclassified, not for distribution to personnel outside the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad." The State Department report was leaked at a politically sensitive time, when Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, is preparing to brief Congress this month on progress since the U.S. troop surge.

The U.S. draft report leaves the impression that corruption is sapping Iraq's resources. An employee of the Ministry of the Interior, which supervises the police, told NPR that senior ministry officials are making money off of contracts to buy equipment. He said rank and rile police officers have to pay bribes to be promoted.

The State Department investigation found that Iraqi ministries routinely refuse to cooperate with Iraq's Commission on Public Integrity, and the watchdog agency's investigators are often unable to enter government offices because they don't have enough firepower to defend themselves.

Read the rest at NPR

Report: Iraq riddled with corruption

A leaked U.S. State Department report concludes the Iraqi government is unable to fight corruption, National Public Radio reported Saturday.

The report found that corrupt officials apparently have no reason to fear for their jobs, while employees of the Commission on Public Integrity have been killed.

The draft was labeled "sensitive, but unclassified, not for distribution to personnel outside the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad," NPR said...

NPR said a Ministry of Interior employee described that agency as riddled with corruption. The ministry is a crucial one, since it is responsible for police.

Read the rest at UPI

Iraqi government plagued by corruption

A US government report has reportedly found that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government is plagued by corruption and has quashed investigations of political allies.

The draft report from the US embassy in Baghdad says Maliki's government is failing to stop officials from committing fraud and is undermining its own watchdog agency, preventing it from carrying out effective investigations, National Public Radio reported on air and on its website.

The government has withheld funds from the commission on public integrity, the country's anti-corruption agency, and in some cases the prime minister's office has quashed probes into politicians allied with the government, NPR said...

The US report and accounts from employees at government ministries give the impression "that corruption is completely sapping the country's resources," with top officials at the interior ministry profiting from contracts for equipment, Flintoff said on NPR's program "All Things Considered."

Read the rest at Channel News Asia

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