Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani on Sunday renewed his commitment to fight endemic corruption and restore the confidence of the citizens in the government and the political process.
Corruption has become one of the main features of the political landscape following the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime.
The country ranked 157 out of 180 in Transparency International's corruption perceptions index in 2022.
“We will not tolerate any retrogression or failure that could lead to exploit the peoples’ money for individual or partisan benefits. The national wealth is for all Iraqis,” Mr Al Sudani told the Baghdad Dialogue Conference.
“All that depends on our determination in fighting the corruption pandemic.”
He described the fight against corruption as “our biggest battle” and warned that if we “neglect it we will lose our other battles”.
Corruption has hampered Iraq’s efforts to recover from decades of war and UN economic sanctions imposed during Saddam's regime.
In 2021, former president Barham Salih estimated that Iraq had lost $150 billion to embezzlement since 2003.
The UN Special Representative for Iraq Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert has described corruption in the country as “pervasive, structural and systemic”.
Ms Hennis-Plasschaert warned that “in the absence of tackling corruption any attempt to push through serious reform will not succeed. This is really the cause by now of Iraq’s dysfunctionality”.
Since late last year, two corruption scandals have rocked the nation.
A former minister revealed that 3.7 trillion Iraqi dinars ($2.5 billion) was embezzled from the tax office in a fraud described as “the heist of the century”.
Senior government officials and businessmen have been arrested, but less than 10 per cent of the money has been repatriated.
In the second scandal, the National Security Service arrested a criminal network that siphoned crude oil from pipelines in remote areas of southern Iraq and smuggled it out of the county.
Senior Interior Ministry and intelligence officers were allegedly involved.
Mr Al Sudani's comments came as the nation marked the 20th anniversary of the war that introduced a new parliamentary system but led to a prolonged period of violence, instability and uncertainty.
Although the majority of Iraqis hailed the removal of Saddam, they have blamed the political elite for corruption, economic inequality and sectarianism.
That public anger over poor public services, high rates of unemployment and deteriorated security led to a series of protests since 2003, reaching their climax in October 2019.
Then, the youth-led protests forced the government to resign and parliament to approve a new electoral law that enabled independent candidates to win seats in parliament.
At least 560 Iraqis and members of the security forces were killed during the demonstrations, while tens of thousands were wounded, many with live ammunition.
In his speech, Mr Al Sudani sought to alleviate Iraqis' concerns about his government, which the parliament confirmed in late October.
“This government has drawn an ambitious and comprehensive programme for the advancement of Iraq,” he said.
This government’s main goal is to “restore the citizen confidence which has been affected as a result of underperformance, unfulfilled promises and lack of achievements”, he added.
