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June 4th, 2017 
Awake Goy 
nsnbc : Ahmed Haji Rashid, head of the finance committee in the Iraqi parliament, said Iraq’s internal incomes in the oil sector alone since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime from 2003 to 2016, had reached nearly $722 billion, of which 57 percent of was sent abroad, outside of the country with another $112 billion missing.
Photo courtesy Rudaw news agency.
Speaking with the Rudaw news agency, Rashid said “We have six precise reports in hand on transferring cash outside of the country, indicating that 57 percent of the cash made in Iraq was sent outside. … What the government is using now is $115 billion and the private sector retains $58 billion. But $112 billion is still missing.” Commenting on committees formed to follow up on the fate of the cash flow out of the country, the head of the parliament’s finance committee explained, “work has been done but courts in this country are not exactly assisting.”
Iraq had the largest annual budget from 2013 to 2016 after Saudi Arabia. Yet, it has rated 16 out of 21 Arab countries in corruption. Adil Nuri, a Kurdish MP and spokesperson of the Integrity committee in the Iraqi parliament believes the source of corruption is that there is not a “serious will” to battle corruption by Baghdad. Nuri said “Corruption has support in Iraq with strong men backing it. … There is not a serious will to end it by the prime minister, therefore our efforts to face corruption will have no results. … Arrest warrants are issued for the corrupt ministers but they end up leaving the country.”
Nuri added that through continued efforts to investigate the missing cash in Iraq they were able to locate $20 billion, “But the corrupt are wielding power so that they took their cases from us in the parliament.” Nuri claims that together with other domestic incomes including customs, taxes and tariffs “the total of Iraq’s incomes from 2003 to now would reach more than $1 trillion dollars”, and he asks “But where is it?” Nuri stressed that officials are laundering large sums of money through banks in the names of businesses and shell companies. Commenting on MPs inability to act he said that all they have is “the power of observation”, but that it is impossible to take action against corrupt officials.
According to Transparency International, of 176 countries, Iraq is ranked 166 among the most corrupt countries in the World. Youth under the age of 19 make up 50 percent of the population in Iraq but unemployment is endemic. 18 percent of the youth between 15 and 24 are unemployed. UN data show that the poverty line has reached 13.3 percent and the average daily income of the population is no more than two dollars.
F/AK – nsnbc 04.06.2017
Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2017/06/04/112-billion-in-iraq-missing/
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