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Harry Hope · Guest

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/news/article_1274427.php/Iraqi_anti-corruption_head_says_graft_worse_than_in_Saddams_time

Mar 8, 2007

Iraqi anti-corruption head says graft worse than in Saddam's time

Cairo -

Corruption in Iraq is now worse than it was during Saddam Hussein's
regime, the Chairman of Iraq's Commission on Public Integrity (CPI),
Radhi Hamza al-Radhi, said in an interview published Thursday in the
Arabic-language Asharq Alawsat newspaper.

'There are eight ministers and 40 general directors against whom
corruption charges have been brought and they had all fled abroad,' he
said.

According to Al-Radhi, the commission was currently investigating the
embezzlement of public funds to the tune of eight billion US dollars.

Independent observers in Baghdad report that it is very difficult to
find an official who will discharge a public service without a bribe.

Al-Radhi conceded that the authority itself has been found guilty of
corruption on several occasions.

However, he said,the problems which the commision had experienced were
not of the magnitude that its critics had claimed.

The CPI was established in January 2003 by the now disbanded Iraqi
Interim Governing Council to curb bribery, embezzlement, and the
misuse of power and public funds.

In the latest corruption index of the Organization Transparency
International, Iraq was found to be the fourth most corrupt country in
the world.

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Part of bringing "democracy" to Iraq.

Harry