‘Only $1 mn’: Iraqi PM adviser suspected of bribe-taking

AFP | Baghdad, Iraq                                               

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Iraq’s anti-corruption agency yesterday announced an investigation into a prime ministerial aide over an alleged audio recording in which he referred to a bribe as being too small.

Corruption is endemic in the state institutions of oilrich Iraq, but the top echelons of power often evade accountability.

The aide, Abdel Karim al-Faisal, denied the accusation and has denounced on Facebook the “fabricated” audio clip.In the recording obtained by Iraqi media, a man alleged to be Faisal criticised his interlocutor, during a phone call, for the bribe being “only $1 million”.

The Commission of Integrity anti-graft body said in a statement it was acting under a directive from Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani in opening “an investigation into an audio recording attributed to the head of the Commission of Advisers to the Prime Minister’s Office”.

It added that it was acting “in coordination with a criminal court judge handling anti-corruption cases”. AFP was not able to authenticate the recording. In the past few weeks several leaks of alleged recordings have shaken Iraq.

Last month, the chief of the tax bureau, Ali Alawi, was suspended for 60 days after an investigation opened following such a leak. An audio recording attributed to him led to accusations that he had granted tax reductions.

He was also placed in detention, a source with the Commission of Integrity told AFP, under cover of anonymity. The former head of the integrity commission himself was fired, only to be given an advisory post at the justice ministry.

This came after judicial authorities in September had announced a probe into the integrity commission chief over alleged audio recordings attributed to him and related to suspected bribery. It is not unknown in Iraq for public officials to try to settle scores by trading accusations.

One of the country’s biggest-ever corruption cases involved the theft of $2.5 billion in public funds from 2021 to 2022. At the end of August, the judiciary issued arrest warrants for a businessman alleged to be the main suspect in that case, and for a former government official.