Latest news with #FederalIntegrityCommission
Shafaq News
20-04-2025
- Shafaq News
$76M gone: Iraq nabs officials in land scam
Shafaq News/ On Sunday, Iraq's Federal Integrity Commission arrested six employees from the First Nasiriyah Municipality Directorate and the First and Second Real Estate Registration Directorates in Dhi Qar province over corruption charges. In an official statement, the Commission described the arrests as part of a 'high-profile operation' carried out under a judicial warrant by three investigative teams from its Dhi Qar office. The employees were accused of manipulating technical reports for high-value residential and commercial land plots from 2020 through 2024, causing significant financial damage to the state. Authorities seized documentation showing manipulation and waste totaling 98.6 billion dinars (approximately $76M). According to the Commission, the suspects unlawfully allocated land to various recipients in violation of public auction rules and fair market pricing requirements. The arrests follow earlier reporting by Shafaq News on Thursday, which revealed that a force from the commission—backed by a large security contingent—raided the municipality building and detained several employees, including the head of urban planning. At the time, nine other staff members fled the scene and remain wanted by authorities under arrest warrants issued pursuant to Article 340 of the Penal Code.
Iraq Business
20-03-2025
- Business
- Iraq Business
Iraqi-Russian Anti-Corruption Agreement
By John Lee. Iraq's Federal Integrity Commission and Russia's Prosecutor General's Office have begun implementing their Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on anti-corruption cooperation, focusing on asset recovery and international legal assistance. During a meeting with a Russian delegation, Dr. Mohammed Ali Al-Lami, Head of the Integrity Commission, emphasized the need to modernize anti-corruption mechanisms to counter evolving methods of financial misconduct. He also called on signatories of the UN Convention Against Corruption to fulfill their commitments on legal cooperation, asset recovery, and extradition, highlighting banking secrecy and legal system differences as key challenges. Discussions covered judicial investigations, evidence sharing, and financial transparency, while Russian experts stressed the importance of bilateral and multilateral partnerships to coordinate efforts at international forums. Both sides explored the twinning of Iraq's Anti-Corruption Academy with Russia's Prosecutor General's University to facilitate training, research, and academic exchanges. Workshops also addressed national coordination committees for anti-corruption enforcement and joint legal measures to track and recover illicit funds. Iraq ranks joint 140th out of 180 countries in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) , while Russia ranks joint 154th. (Source: Federal Integrity Commission)
Shafaq News
18-02-2025
- Politics
- Shafaq News
Iraq's Integrity Commission summons Diyala Governor
Shafaq News/ On Tuesday, Iraq's Federal Integrity Commission summoned Diyala Governor Adnan Al-Shammari to appear before the Baquba Investigative Court. A document revealed that the governor is required to provide his testimony under Article 329 of the Penal Code. The complaints were prompted by the governor's directive to suspend the sale and lease of state-owned properties, particularly land plots allocated to employees and citizens by the Baquba Municipality Directorate. Article 329 stipulates imprisonment, a fine, or both for any public official who abuses their position to suspend or obstruct the enforcement of government orders, laws, regulations, court rulings, or directives from competent authorities. It also applies to those who delay the collection of legally mandated funds or fees. Earlier today, several employees and residents of Diyala filed complaints with the Integrity Court against Governor Al-Shammari. The complainants argued that halting these transactions was illegal and had caused financial losses for the Baquba Municipality.
Iraqi News
12-02-2025
- Business
- Iraqi News
Iraq advances three points in Transparency International's Corruption Report
Baghdad-INA The Federal Integrity Commission announced today, Wednesday, that Iraq has advanced by three points and 14 ranks in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Report. The Commission stated in a statement received by the Iraqi News Agency (INA), that "Iraq has advanced in the Corruption Perceptions Index report for the year (2024) issued by Transparency International on (11/2/2025), which reflects the seriousness of state institutions, especially the oversight ones, in their quest to achieve transparency and good governance." It added that "the Transparency International report indicated that Iraq obtained (26) points in the year 2024, an increase of three points over the year 2023, in addition to advancing (14) positions to rank (140)", indicating that "this comes after the efforts made by the Iraqi government with all its institutions and oversight agencies, especially after the Iraqi government simplified many procedures in service institutions in a way that ensures reducing friction between employees and reviewers of institutions, and the Commission reflected this by implementing sectoral questionnaires in service departments and implementing the National Strategy for Integrity and Combating Corruption, to raise levels of integrity in all state institutions." It added that "this improvement is also attributed to Iraq's compliance with international and regional anti-corruption agreements, partnerships with the private sector and civil society, and the involvement of Iraqi Integrity for youth and women in confronting corruption, achieving high levels of integrity in elections, and its efforts to pass the Right to Information Law." The statement pointed out that "the achievements made in the field of officials disclosing their financial liabilities and the Iraqi government's direct implementation of the digital transformation project and efforts to automate all its procedures and services provided are important elements in the progress in the Perceptions Index report, achievements that the Vice President of the Transparency Organization praised during his participation in the activities of the Second Forum for Promoting Transparency and Good Governance held in the capital, Baghdad, last September." It pointed out that "the oversight agencies hope that Iraq's score in the index for the coming years will be high and reflect the reality of the Iraqi state, especially after the government's program placed combating corruption at the top of the list of priorities, and the efforts of these agencies to establish standards of honesty, integrity and transparency in the public and private sectors, and the call to adopt solid organizations working inside Iraq to obtain information that they adopt as one of the sources in their reports on Iraq."
Shafaq News
28-01-2025
- Business
- Shafaq News
Al-Sudani orders investigation, internet bandwidth smuggling and IQ contracts
Shafaq News/ Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' Al-Sudani, on Tuesday, directed the Federal Integrity Commission to investigate the procedures of the Ministry of Communications regarding cases of internet bandwidth smuggling. Government spokesperson Basim Al-Awadi said in a statement that "Sudani instructed the Federal Integrity Commission to examine the transit bandwidth agreement of IQ Internet Services Company, in coordination with the Parliamentary Integrity Committee, and to clarify whether there are any new contracts with the aforementioned company." On January 7, Iraqi Communications Minister Hayam Al-Yasiri signed an agreement with IQ and CBI companies regarding fiber optics, aimed at providing one terabit of internet bandwidth within the country, complementing marine and land transport networks. In her press conference on that day, Al-Yasiri stated that the project, initiated by the Ministry of Communications in 2010, is now seeing accelerated results, with bandwidth rising from 10 gigabytes to 1.6 terabits. The minister considered the agreement a strategic step to transform Iraq into a central hub for international telecommunications networks, with the potential to attract global investments.
