Iraqi ex-minister accused of pilfering $1-billion
IN INTERIM GOVERNMENT ‘ Possibly the largest robbery in the world,’ panel says
BAGHDAD • Iraq is expected to issue an arrest warrant for its former defence minister after revelations more than US$1-billion has “disappeared” since the fall of Saddam Hussein, a senior corruption investigator said yesterday.
Radhi al-Radhi, head of Iraq’s Commission on Public Integrity, said he handed a file of evidence against Hazim Shaalan, who served in the interim government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, to Iraq’s central criminal court two months ago and expects a warrant for his arrest to be issued soon.
“ What Shaalan and his ministry were responsible for is possibly the largest robbery in the world. Our estimates begin at $1.3-billion and go up to $2.3-billion,” Mr. Radhi told Reuters in an interview in his fortified Baghdad office.
“I expect the court will issue the warrants in the next week to 10 days, for Shaalan and for other senior officials.”
Mr. Shaalan, who is living in Jordan and also spends time in London, has denied any wrongdoing and has said that whatever he did was ultimately approved of by U.S. authorities.
“ These are politically motivated charges by [his] enemies,” Amer Hantouli, an aide to Mr. Shaalan, said from the Jordanian capital Amman.
“They are trying to distract the public from their glaring failure to improve security in Iraq. It’s quite a low tactic. Defence Ministry committees oversaw all deals and followed procedure.”
Among other things, Mr. Shaalan’s ministry was accused of signing contracts with intermediaries, rather than with foreign companies or governments, for the supply of defence equipment, including helicopters, armoured vehicles, bullets and weapons.
Not only are contracts with intermediaries forbidden, but the prices paid for the equipment were vastly inflated and the contracts were often not fulfilled, Mr. Radhi said.
He said, for example, more than US$230-million had been spent on a collection of 28-yearold second-hand Polish helicopters.
Another contract reported yesterday involved buying armoured cars that were so poorly made their armour could be pierced by a single shot from an AK- 47 assault rifle.
Corruption, both in the bidding for and the awarding of contracts, and in the administration of public offices, is one of the most frequent accusations made by Iraqis against their government and foreign firms operating in the country.
Mr. Allawi’s government was in power from June 28, 2004, when it took over from the U.S.- led Coalition Provisional Authority that ran the country immediately after Saddam Hussein’s overthrow, until late February this year, when a new government was formed.
As well as contracts with unnamed intermediaries, Mr. Radhi said Mr. Shaalan had paid millions of dollars for contracts himself, far exceeding the limits of what he could sign off for, and had ordered large disbursements be made to him immediately.
He also demanded and received approval to keep the details of all contracts and their dealings secret, even from the prime minister and the president at the time, Mr. Radhi said.
“ If he were in front of me right now, I would ask Shaalan who gave him the authority to spend all these billions and how come he was able to buy things directly, without a proper bidding process, and paid for things in advance with no guarantees,” he said.
“Iraq was demolished under the former regime and has been demolished again now by this corruption.”
Saadoun Dulaimi, the current Defence Minister, has said that when he took over the ministry in late April there was next to nothing left of the US$1-billion budget for procurement.
As well as the Defence Ministry, Mr. Radhi’s commission has gathered evidence against the transport, trade, interior and public works ministries. Ali Allawi, the Finance Minister, was quoted by Britain’s Independent newspaper yesterday as saying between US$500-million and $600-million had vanished from those ministries.
It said the total amount missing from all the ministries could be as much as US$2-billion.