ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani on Thursday claimed that the vast majority of Baghdad’s construction licenses were riddled with corruption, adding that such forms of dishonesty harm the reputation of the government and the country.
Sudani conducted a visit to the Baghdad mayoralty, evaluating the flow and quality of the projects carried out in the Iraqi capital, and stressing that the municipalities need to elevate their efforts in providing services for the areas under their control in a way that meets the needs of the people.
“The construction licenses are all filled with corruption. 90 percent of them are riddled with corruption and use the laws, regulations, and guidelines for the purpose of [obtaining] bribery and extortion of citizens,” Sudani told the mayoralty staff, also claiming that officials receive bribery for 99 percent of the licenses signed.
The Iraqi premier based his comments on written letters from citizens that had criticized the services they had received in governmental institutions, stressing that the people cannot be expected to believe that combating corruption is a priority on the government’s agenda when they are personally subjected to forms of corruption on a daily basis.
“The people’s satisfaction is the standard for the quality of services and their purpose,” he noted, emphasizing that efforts to end corruption in governmental offices and holding those involved accountable was a “legal, moral, and national obligation.”
Rampant corruption plagues all levels of the Iraqi state. The country ranks as the joint tenth most corrupt nation in the world according to the Transparency International annual corruption perceptions index.
Since assuming the Iraqi premiership in October, Sudani has frequently reiterated his cabinet’s commitment to battling the endemic corruption that plagues the Iraqi state, and has not shied away from sacking numerous officials in high-level positions.
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