|
Fearing Prosecution, Allawi’s Ministers Flee Iraq: Report
 |
|
Jaafari
pledged to crack down hard on corrupt officials. (Reuters)
|
CAIRO,
May 9, 2005, (IslamOnline.net) – Some ministers of the outgoing
US-handpicked Iraqi government of Iyad Allawi, regarded as highly
corrupt by Iraqis, are fleeing the country, fearing possible
prosecution on corruption charges, a leading British newspaper
revealed on Monday, May 9.
With
a US audit report exposing that American officials had embezzled about
$100 million from Iraq reconstruction funds in cahoots with Iraqi
officials, the alarm bells for ex-cabinet officials started ringing
after the new government of Ibrhaim Al-Jaafari pledged to fight
pervasive corruption, The Independent reported.
“I
have heard that [the government] are considering preventing any
minister of the former government leaving the country,” it quoted
Adnan Pachachi, a former foreign minister and veteran political
leader, as saying.
Many
of the corruption cases are related to reconstruction contracts and
government jobs.
The
daily said that though huge sums have been spent on reconstruction
projects, no tangible improvement in living conditions of the Iraqi
people can be felt due to corruption.
“The
new government will have to tackle corruption if it is to get the
state machinery operating again,” it maintained.
Shortly
after parliament approved the new cabinet following hard labor, new
Oil Minister Bahr Al-Uloum vowed to follow a new motto in the
chaos-mired country: “Fight corruption and boost production.”
Blacklisted
The
Independent said that some ex-cabinet
officials have already made their escape following reports that
Jaafari was mulling blacklisting corrupt officials under an emergency
law introduced by Allawi.
Many
former ministers spent so much of their time on foreign trips that it
is difficult to identify precisely who will stay abroad for fear of
investigation in Iraq, it added.
The
escapes may have been also triggered by fears of being an easy target
for assassins unlike serving ministers, according to the daily.
“They
feel they will not have enough protection. The insurgents will find it
difficult to kill a serving minister, so they may see a former
minister as an easier target,” an Iraqi diplomat told The
Independent.
Wary
Investors
The
prevailing corruption has taken its toll on Iraq’s economy, scaring
away many potential investors and businessmen.
“I
am thinking of pulling out of business entirely in Iraq,” one
businessman told the British daily.
“Officials
at every level demand bribes just to do their jobs so there is no
profit left for my company at the end of the day.”
On
May 4, Stuart Bowen, the US special inspector-general for Iraq
reconstruction, issued a report indicating that auditors have been
unable account for 96-million dollars earmarked for projects to
rebuild Iraq.
“We
found indications of fraud,” concluded the report.
The
embezzled funds involved assets seized from Saddam Hussein's regime
and from Iraqi oil revenue, but no American money.
The
US administration has opened a criminal inquiry into the issue, the
first of its kind over Iraq reconstruction.
Last
June, UN-mandated auditors chided the US-led occupation authority over
“fraudulent acts” in spending more than 11 billion dollars of
Iraqi oil revenues.
NEWSWEEK
said in March that the US administration’s lenient line with
fraudulent American contractors in Iraq would turn the occupied
country into a
“free-fraud zone,”
leaving the money of US taxpayers at stake.
|
