Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has been calling on combating ISIS and expelling it militarily from the Iraqi territories during 2017, and now as the year is coming to an end he has started talking about fighting corruption in Iraq in 2018.
He said that corruption in his country is caused by organized mafias and prominent figures as most MPs and heads of blocs agree on, such as Iraqi Turkmen MP Hassan Toran, Head of Iraqi Forces Coalition Salah al-Jubouri, member of the Commission of Integrity Mish’an al-Jubouri and member of the Iraqi Civil Democratic Alliance Shorouq al-Abayji.
"We will not allow the corrupters to steal the money again under the pretext of providing services," Abadi said in a speech at the celebration held in Baghdad on the occasion of "Victory Day,” explaining that the corrupters who seized the state funds are the ones who entered ISIS to Iraq.
He called on citizens to “unite their votes in the elections against the corrupters,” and he stressed the continuation to pursue terrorists everywhere in Iraq until the elimination of their last stronghold.
While MP Hassan Toran said that “corruption will not stop in Iraq unless senior officials are held accountable,” MP Shorouq al-Abayji believes that “the solution lies in the outcomes of the elections, scheduled to be held in May 2018.”
Abayji considers that “these elections are fateful in the history of Iraq since it depends on the citizens’ decisions. If they choose right, the fight against corrupters will be easier and will achieve the desired results.”
She said that what Abadi has earlier pointed out on regarding the relation between corruption and ISIS’s entry to the country is true, adding that the system of sectarian and ethnic quotas the greatest reason behind all the calamities people suffer in Iraq.
Toran also agreed on what Abadi’s point of view, saying that provisional parliamentary committee for investigating the fall of Mosul had proved this fact in its report, which was not published.
"One year before the fall of Mosul in June 2014, a committee from the Ministry of Defense Inspection Authority visited the city of Mosul and spoke to the military commander who was holding the ground there.
It identified the imbalance and asked for the replacement of the brigade, but no action was taken in this regard, and this of course is a corruption, which necessarily led to facilitating the task of ISIS,” Toran added.
"Success in the fight against corruption requires the political will of the prime minister as giving statements is not enough," he said, pointing out that the end of corruption in Iraq can not be announced unless senior officials are held accountable for their corrupting acts.
