Official: Iraqi parties smuggle billions of dollars of oil, gov’t powerless

“There are other cases of corruption that neither Prime Minister Abadi nor anyone else in Iraq can tackle for many years to come and that’s because the ministries have been given to individuals from political parties,” Nuraddin said.

“Each party treats its ministry like personal property and handle every contract and deal that way,” he maintained.

Nuraddin went on to say that corruption is likewise rife in the ministries of education and electricity.

“Up to now more than 17 billion dollars has been spent on electricity from Iraq’s national budget and the state of electricity is still intermittent like traffic lights,” he said.

This member of the integrity commission said that the southern province of Basra is acting like an independent country and the central government has no authority there.

“There’s a completely different government in Basra that runs everything and this is with the testimony of the Basra MPs themselves,” he said. “That’s why the level of poverty and lack of services in Basra is high even though the amount of oil extracted in Basra is tens of times higher than it is in Kirkuk.”