A corruption deal in the Ministry of Defense has been uncovered, with victims amounting to 1.6 trillion dinars.
The head of the Victorious parliamentary bloc, Faleh al-Khazali, announced on Tuesday a corruption deal in the Ministry of Defense that cost 1.6 trillion dinars, and called on Prime Minister Ali al-Zidi to investigate the matter. Corporate& Financial Crime
Al-Khazali said in a press conference, “While we support the government’s measures to address and confront corruption, we submitted an official letter to Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi regarding corruption in the Ministry of Defense within a deal to sell scrap metal,” indicating that “the quantity is no less than 4 million tons of iron and may increase.”
He added, “According to the appraisal committee and in accordance with the State Property Sale and Lease Law No. 21 of 2013, the approximate sale was at 600,000 dinars per ton, and therefore, when this number is added, the amount is 2 trillion and 400 billion Iraqi dinars,” explaining that “by skipping over the law and through exceptional procedures, the sale was made at a price of 200,000 dinars per ton, and therefore the waste in this file is 1 trillion and 600 billion Iraqi dinars.”
He stressed that “this is not imagination or analysis, but real information,” noting that “I am directing my words to the Prime Minister regarding the waste in this file amounting to no less than 1 trillion and 600 billion Iraqi dinars.”
He stressed the need to “address this issue and invest the funds correctly,” explaining, “In our letter to the Prime Minister, we requested that this amount be allocated to support air defenses.”
He explained that “according to our information, the Ministry of Defense has a contract with South Korea to arm it with air defense systems for $2.7 billion, and the Iraqi government paid $500 million with the expectation that the batteries would be delivered in 2025. However, the lack of funding and allocation to the Ministry of Defense has affected the arming, so South Korea notified Iraq that the weapons would be sold to one of the countries that had submitted an offer to import them.”
He stressed “the need to invest this money in supporting the Ministry of Defense with air defense systems instead of these sums going into the pockets of corrupt people.”
Burathanews.com