Iraq is not fated to live with corruption

June 30, 2023

The problem may be ingrained but there are ways for those who care about transparency and fairness to tackle the worst of it

The national news – The National Editorial. Many countries are faced with the scourge of corruption, but few suffer from it more than Iraq. Ranked 157th out of 180 nations in a corruption list by Transparency International last year, Iraq faces the perverse reality that as it experiences growth in financial revenue – mostly thanks to its significant oil sector – there is more wealth for the unscrupulous to target.

Last week, The National reported on how a now-defunct special government committee, which had the job of investigating corruption, itself became mired in deceit. Set up under the administration of former prime minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi, Committee 29 ordered several high-profile arrests of senior state officials and businessmen accused of corruption. But current Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani later ordered an investigation into alleged human rights offences carried out by the committee itself, after a report in the US media alleged it used forms of torture to extract confessions. Nine senior Interior Ministry officials have been dismissed.

On Sunday, a prominent Iraqi official in charge of postwar reconstruction was relieved of his duties on suspicion of corruption. The firing of Mohammed Al Ani, the head of the state-run fund in charge of rebuilding areas damaged by the war against ISIS, is the first of a senior government official since Mr Al Sudani took office in late October.

These are just the latest twists in a long tale. The scramble for reconstruction money, contracts and resources following the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003 entrenched fraud and graft. According to research from the Brookings Institution think tank released in April, the US “scattered unregulated and unmonitored money at many projects and, in the process, unleashed a thirst for graft and easy money at nearly every level of government, and even arguably in civil society organisations”.

Many ordinary Iraqis despair of the country’s corruption problem and blame its political parties. Although moves to thwart wrongdoing and punish officials responsible for pocketing or diverting money intended for Iraq’s development are welcome, any perception that the anti-corruption fight is being used to settle personal scores could entrench public disillusionment with the political class – turnout in the country’s last elections in 2021 was 41 per cent, down from 44.5 per cent in 2018, and was the lowest turnout in any Iraqi vote since 2005.

Despite the ingrained nature of corruption in Iraq, there are ways for those who care about transparency and fairness to tackle the worst of it. Building a strong civil society network of lawyers, judges, journalists and academics could be one way to expose, highlight and oppose corruption. Moving Iraq away from being a predominately cash society – in which it is difficult to track and record the flow of money – could also help.

Other countries have taken on corruption and won. In 1995, Indonesia was ranked last in the Transparency International index; last year it was 110th out of 180 nations. This improvement was in part due to the country in 2002 setting up its Corruption Eradication Commission, a body with the necessary powers to uncover wrongdoing. Rwanda, which emerged damaged from genocide and conflict in the 1990s, has also been used as an example of how to fight corruption, with the Basel Institute on Governance ascribing this success to “the enforcement of strong discipline across the public sector, the politicisation of the masses through education, and … an emphasis on sacrificing individual interests for the public good”.

Despite these successes, there is no single solution. Those who stand up against corruption often face a long, lonely and dangerous struggle. But no country is destined to endure widespread corruption forever. The tools are there if the politicians and law enforcement officials have the will to use them. It is entirely possible for Iraq to break the cycle of corruption and use its wealth and resources for a better future for its people.