Five senior tax officials in Iraq have been questioned by an investigating judge after the ‘theft’ of $2.5 billion withdrawn from a government account and arrest warrants have been issued by the judiciary, report Tuesday, October 18 the judicial authorities. The affair has for several days caused great indignation in an Iraq rich in oil and hit by endemic corruption.
A document from the General Tax Administration explains that these 2.5 billion dollars were deducted between September 2021 and August 2022, via 247 checks cashed by five companies. The money was then withdrawn in cash from the accounts of these companies.
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Corruption
Five civil servants from the Tax Administration, including its director general and his deputyappeared Monday evening and Tuesdaybefore an investigating judge at the Karkh Court in Baghdad, as part of the criminal investigation, according to a statement released on Tuesday. Furthermore, “the Court issued arrest warrants against the owners of the companies (involved) and the freezing of their bank accounts“, according to the same source. The Ministry of Finance said Monday evening that the President of the Tax Administration and his direct collaborators had been dismissed following an internal investigation.
In its press release, the ministry adds that “arrest warrants have been issued for officials, business owners and those who benefited from the withdrawal of this money“, without specifying the number of warrants issued or the identities of the persons concerned. Despite corruption that has infiltrated all public institutions and administrations, the few cases that result in convictions often affect the intermediate levels of government.
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“What can Iraq do with its missing billions of dollars? Invest in schools, hospitals, energy, water, roads“Lamented Monday evening the UN envoy to Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, in a tweet accompanied by the hashtag “Theft of tax deposits“.