Integrity seizes an Iraqi official who is caught in the act of receiving thousands of dollars in bribery
Shafaq News / The Integrity Commission announced, on Tuesday, the arrest of an official of the Antiquities and Heritage Authority, in the act of bribery.
“Its owners managed to seize the director of the legal department of the General Authority for Antiquities and Heritage in the company of another employee in it, for the crime that they received for the amount of (12,000) USD, in exchange for changing the discovery of an ancient building,” the authority said in a statement to Shafaaq News.
And indicated that “the defendants agreed to submit a new disclosure for the purpose of the legal department withdrawing the complaint submitted by it before the Money Laundering and Organized Crime Court against the owner of the property of the antique building, and closed the investigation with it.”
The authority added that “a fundamental arrest report was prepared for the exact amount of bribery, the numbers and details of which are fixed by the investigation papers, and presented to the judge of the investigative court in charge of integrity issues in Baghdad, who decided to arrest the accused in accordance with the provisions of resolution (160 of 1983).”
Iraq is among the most corrupt countries in the world, since successive governments have been unable since 2003 to provide basic services such as electricity, drinking water, health and education services, and others.
Iraq ranked 168 out of 180 countries in 2018 according to the “Transparency International” report, a rank that has been repeated for 15 years in a row.