International Conference for the Suppression of the Corrupt in Iraq
International Conference for the Suppression of the Corrupt in Iraq
For the period from 12 to 14 of this month, the Conference on the Reconstruction of Iraq was held in Kuwait. The stated aim was to mobilize international support to participate in the promotion of the bitter reality of the military operations, which were aimed at regaining control of the cities seized by the state. But the most important question that was raised in the corridors of the conference whispering and public some times is, is the conference a new opportunity to feed the pockets of corrupt in the Iraqi authority and its parties? Or is it a real chance to advance Iraq?
It is truly regrettable that there will be a conference of international donors, held for a country that is one of the richest countries on the planet. All the elements of the wealth have met with oil, gas and two great rivers, and a human wealth in which young people constitute a high percentage of the total population. It once opened its coffers for brothers and friends in Africa and other third world countries, so that its material aid is still visible in Mauritania, Yemen, Egypt, Jordan, Djibouti, Somalia and elsewhere. But the scourge of corrupt agents brought to power by the invaders in the country did not remain stone on stone, and overnight they turned from people who lived on the social aid provided by the countries of asylum to businessmen who owned everything.
The United States pressed the creditor countries of Iraq to extinguish its debts after the invasion, to improve its ugly image and its illegal action against the Iraqis, and extinguished 90 percent of that debt. As the lifting of the economic siege and opened all the doors of trade with him. But the Iraqis discovered that the ration card items of high quality, which were obtained under the siege has been lost, and that health services have disappeared, and that medicines and medical supplies of global originals replaced by Chinese, Indian and Iranian, which were not known to us at all. And that water, electricity and other services that were reconstructed after the 1991 aggression in six months, all the superpowers that occupied Iraq could not bring them back to normal. Iraqis still suffer from water and electricity shortages and other basic services. Some may not like this comparison, but it is the voice of the Iraqi street, which follows its satellite channels to find a comparison between today and yesterday, is the standard of daily life for people. Change means moving from one case to another, but surely no one can say that the invasion and occupation are a state of change, because what happened in Iraq is an act far removed from the state of change.
Some Iraqi officials say Iraq's actual need for reconstruction amounts to nearly $ 88 billion, while experts say it needs more than $ 300 billion. When the International Transparency Organization says that Iraq is one of the 10 corrupt countries in the world, the World Bank says that 600 billion dollars stolen from the treasury of the state under the former prime minister, and the Finance Committee in the Iraqi parliament that he lost 360 billion dollars because of money laundering and corruption, We are facing a huge amount of nearly $ 1000 billion, stolen, is there any country capable of risking a grant to Iraq anymore? Is it possible for a European politician to risk his political future by giving the taxes paid by his compatriots to pockets of theft and corruption? It is true that a large number of countries, organizations and the private sector participated in the conference, but many of them participated in other political and economic accounts that belong to them and do not concern Iraq. And some of them attended to know what the Iraqi side can provide guarantees and procedures that help to get the funds to the right direction. Because corruption was on the table, and the government's actions proved ineffective, many were reluctant to take a decision to contribute to the reconstruction of the country. So the results disappointed many experts and specialists. Only the government is the one who considered the $ 33 billion victory as a tribute to it and an international recognition of its authority. This can be understood in the context of trying to invest everything, even if it is lost in the election campaign under way.
Some might think that $ 33 billion means something big. Yes, it can be for a country that does not have the space and count of the souls of Iraq, and the amount of damage and destruction that came to everything in it. Mosul has been devastated by its plains, Anbar, Salahuddin and Diyala, and its central and southern governorates suffer from the scarcity of agricultural water, after the two great rivers have turned into small streams whose water does not cover the need for drinking. The number of people displaced from their homes has reached 2.5 million. And the proportion of living under the poverty line reached in all of Iraq to 23 percent, and in the destroyed provinces to 40 percent.
The huge investment opportunities that exist in the country, especially in the field of infrastructure, and the state of global recession experienced by countries and companies, were supposed to be a strong impetus to enter the Iraqi arena, but the opposite is happening today. The reason for this is that the political, security and legislative conditions are all driving the investment. The increasing role of Iran in Iraq is contrary to the interests of other countries that want to contribute to reconstruction, insecurity and extortion suffered by many companies to pay others to refrain from entering this market. The legal legislation that protects the investor is not enough to make it difficult to apply on the ground. In the face of this bitter reality, the solution lies in several directions. First, donor and investor countries implement projects themselves through their own companies. Those States have commented on this formula, which is also unsafe, because gangs that speak on behalf of the state and the parties will trample and alienate their foreign employees. The second option would be the establishment of an e-government that would allow real-time monitoring of revenue and expenditure, and the authorities would reject that formula on the pretext of diminishing sovereignty. The last option is the return of the United Nations to the oil-for-food program and medicine, and to take control of the Iraqi money from the sale of oil, and spending in the aspects of service and development of agricultural and industrial.
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