The Iraqi parliament is planning to establish a special committee to fight corruption, which has plagued the country for the past years, parliamentary sources revealed Tuesday.
“The new panel would include members representing all parliamentary committees and would support the work of the government and judiciary to eliminate the scourge of corruption,” they said.
It seems that the legislative authority is planning on following in the footsteps of the executive authority, which announced the formation of the “Supreme Anti-Corruption Council” late last year, in a bid to start tackling rampant corruption in the country.
Member of Iraq's Integrity Commission, Hassan Shaker al-Kaabi told Al Sabah newspaper on Tuesday that “parliament plans to establish a special committee from its affiliated committees to fight corruption by following up and monitoring executive decisions.”
The mission of this committee would be different from the tasks performed by the Integrity Commission, he explained.
He said that in order to fight rampant corruption, the committee should draft laws that are more effective in fighting corruption than the present ones.
He said the current laws allow figures, who are accused of corruption, to evade legal proceedings.
Separately, head of the Sairoon coalition, cleric Moqtada al-Sadr established a three-member special committee, including former governor of Baghdad Ali al-Tamimi, and tasked it with “collecting full data on current and former members of the Sadrist Movement, who are working in government commercial projects, whether illicit or legal.”
In a statement Tuesday, Sadr said that every person who refuses to collaborate with this committee or is found guilty in corruption-related cases would be referred to the state’s specialized courts.
He stressed that people who had presented a written resignation from the party or had worked in financial or commercial projects not under the administrative authority of the movement would be exempt from being prosecuted by the committee.
