SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iraq’s integrity committee has estimated that around $240 billion dollars have been smuggled outside Iraq since 2003.
“The amount [350 trillion dinars] was smuggled in the form of fake receipts, and a lot of commissions were paid to officials,” state news agency cited member of Iraqi parliament’s integrity committee Taha al-Difai as saying on Monday, according to Anadolu Agency.
The lawmaker cited political pressure on anti-corruption committee formed by the federal government to investigate allegations of graft in the country.
Difai hoped the committee would resume its investigations into the dossiers including “corruption in some of the ministries”.
“Around $1,000 trillion dinars ($685 billion) have been disbursed since 2003,” he said, Anadolu reported. He added that this amount was “wasted in contracting and rampant corruption.”
Iraq is perceived as the 16th most corrupt country in the world according to Transparency International, with some $450 billion in public funds vanishing into the pockets of shady politicians and businessmen since 2004, AFP reported.
Iraq is witnessing a fiscal deficit of 58 trillion dinars in the 2021 budget – almost 38.6% of the total budget of $102 billion, due to the decline in crude oil prices.
In December, Iraq’s Central Bank devalued the national currency against the U.S. dollar by almost 20%. The bank said the key reason behind the dinar’s devaluation was to close the gap of widened 2021 budget inflation after a collapse in global oil prices, a major source of Iraq’s financial resources.
OPEC’s second-biggest oil producer relies almost exclusively on its crude exports to fund its budget, which includes a bloated public sector and mass subsidies.
Since an oil price crash earlier this year, Iraq has been grappling with an unprecedented liquidity crisis.
The crude-exporting country has had to borrow from the bank’s dollar reserves to pay the nearly $5 billion in monthly fees for public salaries and pensions.
