Monday, September 03, 2007

Corruption in Iraq, Following BushCo's Example

The rule of law is essential to business and everyday life under any government and it seems another failure of the Iraqi government involves corruption and not only an inability to address it, but a complete disinclination to do so. The Nation has gotten its hands on a working draft of a secret US Bhagdad Embassy report 70 pages long that reviews the work of the Commission on Public Integrity, an independent Iraqi agency, and other anti-corruption programs.

The report details a government riddled with corruption beyond the reach of investigators threatening public support for the government and supplying materials and money to insurgents. The Ministry of Health is bad enough to threaten its ability to deliver services, the Oil Ministry has no accurate accounting of production and transportation because organized criminal gangs are stealing the place blind. The Ministries of Education, Water Resources, and Labor and Social Affairs are hostile to anti-corruption investigations and even make no effort to address it. The militia of Moqtada al Sadr have made the Ministry of Transportation immune from investigation and riddled with wholesale corruption. Several Ministries are so controlled by militias or criminal gangs that it is impossible for corruption investigators operate without security forces to protect the investigators. There is no apparent concern at the Defense Ministry over the theft of $850 million.

The CPI has little in staff or funding, 120 investigators for 34 Ministries, of 455 investigations only 15 have reached trial stage. Many of the investigators are described as little more than clerks and they are faced by the hostility of powers up to and including Maliki. Earlier this year he ordered the CPI not to forward any cases to court involving the President, Prime Minister, or any current or past Ministers without his permission. (George, you jealous? Nah, playing the same game) I'd say the reason you hear nothing about this is that BushCo really can't see the difference between their business as usual and Iraq.

To attempt to detail the level of corruption would take an article as long as The Nation's so if you're now curious, go see them.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Don't blame Bush for the problems with corruption in Iraq. I worked there to help set up CPI, the anti-corruption agency, and the problem was the State Dept. and their "implementation agency for foreign aid" USAID, both full of Democrats and liberals. They spent most of their time pushing Democracy and Women's Rights programs and ignored corruption as a problem. Corruption in Iraq is a well known source of funding for terrorists - see more at my blog on anti-corruption at http://webworks.typepad.com/corruption_in_iraq/
vj

Chuck Butcher said...

Um, the State Dept is corrupt? You're blaming Iraqi corruption on the Democrats and liberals in the State Dept? So I guess it's not too difficult to figure out how YOU got your job in Iraq. Good grief, who said it was BushCo's fault, other than the example...

Chuck Butcher said...

By the way, that link is 404 not found