Witnesses of mass corruption

“Based on the cases that I have personally investigated, I believe that at least $18 billion has been lost due to waste and corruption in Iraq, more than half of which is American tax payer money,” said Former Chief Investigator (Baghdad) of the Iraqi Commission on Public Integrity Salam Adhoob during a hearing on corruption and waste in Iraq.

“Of this $18 I billion believe at least $4 billion has been lost due to corruption and criminal acts in the Ministry of Defense alone.”

Adhoob went on to explain the extent of the corruption in the al-Maliki government, citing instances in which senior members of the Ministry, including the Defense Minister and Defense Secretary General, would establish poorly funded front companies through relatives which they would then award billion dollar contracts. These deals apparently brought very few results

“The front company charged $4.5 million for helicopters that cost only $1.5 million dollars…the company never delivered the M-18 helicopters. Helicopters were not the only military equipment not delivered by these front companies. Despite having been paid in full the two companies delivered only a small percentage of weapons and other military equipment that had been ordered by the Ministry of Defense,” said Adhoob.

CPI investigators later found out that the front companies diverted a substantial amount of their profits to fund to al-Qaeda. Adhoob stated that nobody involved in the Defense Ministry has yet faced any legal consequences.

The committee also addressed accusations of corruption among U.S. officials and corporations.

“One of the biggest U.S. contractors, the Parsons Corporation, was paid $31 million to build an Iraqi prison in Diyala, Iraq. Iraqi contractors got paid an additional $9 million…the prison was supposed to house 3,600 inmates, but it was never finished, and today it sits abandoned,” said Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.)

An anonymous witness later stated that the Minister of Justice specifically told an U.S. government officials that the Iraqi government did not want this prison built since it was too close to the Iranian border. The U.S. ignored this request and contracted it anyways.

There is doubt over how corruption and waste will be confronted in the future. The current head of CPI announced that an amnesty law passed by the Iraqi Parliament will block the investigation of 700 cases of alleged corruption in Baghdad alone.