Iraq min calls for war against graft

Islamic State capitalised on wheat corruption

BAGHDAD, April 6, (RTRS): Two years ago, corruption was so rampant in Iraq’s wheat procurement programme that even Islamic State militants cashed in by smuggling the strategic commodity across the border from Syria with the suspected collusion of Trade Ministry officials.

The man who cracked down on that network says the ministry, which just announced new measures to fight graft and is charged with ensuring Iraq’s food security, still has a long way to go before it can tackle the deep-rooted problem.

“We need to educate people, starting from children at school, about the risks of corruption and to create a society that rejects this phenomenon,” Labour Minister Mohammed al-Sudani told Reuters in an interview.

Nicknamed “Mr Clean” for his efforts to fight corruption, Sudani served as acting trade minister in 2015.

His predecessor, Trade Minister Milas Mohammed Abdul Kareem, went into hiding after Iraq issued an arrest warrant for him and his brother during an investigation into bribes, illegal benefits, and the misuse of his position.

Abdul Kareem has said the allegations were not based on solid evidence.

Abdul Kareem’s bodyguards are awaiting trial on charges of killing a Trade Ministry adviser who colleagues said had been about to hand over files accusing the minister of corruption.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has promised to tackle corruption in a political system that doles out positions along ethnic and sectarian lines, creating powerful patronage networks.

Tackling the problem in the Trade Ministry will be an especially daunting task, even though it recently imposed new regulations such as staggering payments to suppliers to prevent secret deals.

Sudani, now the labour minister, said real change will come only with an overhaul of the tendering system that would eliminate shady companies that strike kickback deals with all levels of ministry employees.

“The glitch in the tender process is the dependence on obscure companies that are not specialised. Not proper companies. There are big companies who are well known. There is a dependence on middlemen,” he said.

“There were director generals who were involved. Even the employee who takes samples from the ship takes bribes.”

Sudani took on major corruption cases when he ran the ministry, and conditions that led to those scandals are still in place, such as government payments of high premiums to local farmers.

The Trade Ministry discovered an elaborate wheat-smuggling operation.

About 600,000 tonnes of wheat from Romania and Ukraine was brought into Iraq through Saudi Arabia and Turkey disguised as a local harvest and sold to the state at a premium.

Islamic State militants were also in on this corruption, said Sudani, confirming long-held suspicions that the group was smuggling wheat from Syria to Iraqi buyers.

The group smuggled in about 180,000 tonnes, working with Iraqi traders and storing wheat in silos in Anbar province, Babel and Abu Ghraib.

Trade Ministry officials were accused of both helping Islamic State sell the wheat and tipping off militants who attacked a silo as it was being investigated by the authorities for illegal supplies, Sudani said.

“We referred director generals for investigation and also some employees. Some were dismissed, others were fined,” Sudani said.

Iraq is one of the world’s biggest importers of wheat and rice. Even former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein understood any serious disruptions in supplies could create a backlash.

He started a food-rationing system as a response to United Nations economic sanctions following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

Sudani said that system had not been properly inspected since Saddam was toppled in 2003, leaving it vulnerable to widespread corruption.