“Following the fall of the old regime in 2003, people went to public institutions and robbed them… People thought that this was Saddam Hussein’s money, and that they were burning his money. I asked someone once, when you burn a hospital which is an institution you benefit from, let’s say that after two days someone is sick, perhaps a relative or a friend, where will he or she go? To the hospital which you burnt by your own hand? You burnt your hospital and not Saddam’s hospital.”
Judge Raheem Al-Okaily
Corruption is one of the most obvious menaces plaguing Arab societies today and is one of the main reasons for the slow and sluggish development performance of the Arab region. Corruption contributes to structural malfunction and institutional immobility in the public sector, thus weakening public service delivery and destroying the reputation of state institutions. Corruption undermines democratization efforts, and denies citizens equality of opportunity.
In March 2008, Iraq joined the small group of Arab countries that are party to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC). Yet, in 2008, both Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index and the World Bank’s Governance Indicators ranked Iraq amongst the 10 most corrupt nations in the world. Government institutions have been accused of rampant financial and administrative corruption by civil society, and the Iraqi media has started to extensively discuss and report on the issue.
The Iraqi Commission on Public Integrity (CPI) has recently stepped up its efforts to curb corruption and to promote transparency by obliging many top-level officials to submit financial reports on their assets. The CPI is an independent commission within the Iraqi government with a nation wide mandate to prevent and investigate corruption at all levels of the Iraqi government. It works closely together with the Inspector General’s Office within each ministry and with the Board of Supreme Audit (BSA) to coordinate anti-corruption efforts.
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