Iraqi prime minister begins crackdown on border corruption at crossing with Iran

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi travelled to the border with Iran yesterday to launch a campaign against corruption in the Customs service, opening a new front in his battle to restore the rule of law since taking office in May.

Mr Al Kadhimi said Iraq’s frontier had become “a hotbed for corrupt people”, with hundreds of millions of dollars being lost because imported goods are not properly taxed.

“This is the beginning of our promise to combat corruption,” he said at the Mandali border crossing in Diyala province.

“The first phase is to protect border crossings with new security forces.

“The second is to fight ‘ghosts’ trying to blackmail Iraqis, and the third is to automate the crossing with new technology.”

Iraq imports almost all of its consumer goods from either its eastern neighbour Iran or its northern neighbour Turkey. But Customs officials are accused of charging little or no duty on imports in exchange for bribes.

Finance Minister Ali Allawi last month listed import duties as one of the ways the government would seek to increase non-oil revenue to make up for the state’s loss of income from falling oil prices.

“The ports should give us revenues of seven trillion Iraqi dinar [Dh21.54 billion] a year.

“We only get one trillion right now,” he said. “To close that gap, we’ll need a string of reforms to the Customs administration.”

The Mandali crossing is controlled by a mix of intelligence forces and the Popular Mobilisation Forces – a state-recognised group of paramilitary forces aligned with Iran.

The PMF are taking part in the recently launched Heroes of Iraq operation to flush out ISIS remnants from Salaheddin, Diyala, Samarra and Kirkuk provinces.