ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - While the sweeping crackdown on corruption across Iraq is an encouraging step forward, it is still too early to assess its impact, a Transparency International regional advisor told Rudaw on Tuesday, following the arrest of dozens of senior officials and politicians as part of Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi’s Operation Dawn, launched Sunday.
“It is still a bit early to say if it is a successful operation and it is a bit early to say what the spirit behind the operation is,” said Manuel Pirino, Transparency International’s regional advisor for the Middle East and North Africa, about the anti-corruption campaign, adding that it has been “very decisive, very thorough, and followed, with due process, many months of investigation.”
The remarks come as Iraqi authorities continue to make headway with Operation Dawn, a large-scale anti-corruption campaign that was launched on Sunday under the direction of Prime Minister Zaidi in coordination with Iraq's Federal Commission of Integrity.
The operation has so far netted tens of millions of dollars in stolen public money and resulted in the arrest of tens of suspects including lawmakers, former officials, and senior government employees.
Pirino noted that Iraq, "by GDP alone, should be one of the wealthiest nations of the earth," but pointed to systemic failures in infrastructure and public access to medication and electricity.
He added that much of the diverted funds leave Iraq for financial hubs in France, the Cayman Islands, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom, where intermediaries such as accountants and lawyers facilitate the money's disappearance.
Iraq ranked 136th out of 182 countries in Transparency International's 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), scoring 28 out of 100, reflecting a high level of public-sector corruption by global standards.
Pirino’s remarks come a day after a senior United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) official in Iraq told Rudaw that “around 20 percent of the country’s public funds have been lost to corruption,” and that “between $150 billion and $450 billion in assets may have been moved overseas or hidden within Iraq,” making them difficult or even impossible to recover.
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