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Iraq is considered one of the countries that have wasted the most resources, either through cataracts or robberies, etc., which deprived Iraqis of funds, if they existed, to turn the situation in Iraq upside down.
Among the more than $ 1 trillion of Iraq’s total budget since 2003, according to economists, more than $ 250 billion of it was lost due to “administrative corruption,” as Iraqi Finance Minister Ali Allawi puts it.
Allawi told an economic seminar reported by the “Iraqi National News Agency” that the disbursement of these funds was a “financial benefit” for some parties, leading to a decline in the state’s capabilities.
According to experts, the money lost from Iraqi budgets is greater than the amount mentioned by the finance minister, who said it was “enough to build several countries.”
Economic expert Manar Al-Obaidi tells Al-Hurra that the total Iraqi budgets for the years after 2003 is more than $ 1.1 trillion, emphasizing that “the amount that the Minister of Finance is only for the money that was lost without official exchange restrictions. “
The amounts that are not related to the official data for its disbursement resources are considered “unaccounted for,” according to an official source from the Iraqi Financial Supervision Office.
The source told Al-Hurra that this money simply “evaporated”, and attempts to discover its destination were unsuccessful, but the time frame for the “loss” of most of it was between 2008 and 2014.
Nuri al-Maliki, general secretary of the Islamic Dawa Party, assumed the position of prime minister in Iraq during the years 2006-2014.
Economist Manar al-Ubaidi said the actual amount of money “wasted” is estimated at “400-450 billion US dollars”, or about 40 percent of Iraq’s total budget.
An amount of 400 billion is enough to build 400 thousand model schools, at a value of one million dollars per school, or 20 thousand model hospitals, at a value of 20 million dollars.
The amount is also enough to buy 28,000 F-16s, each of which costs about $ 16 million, or is enough to give each Iraqi individual an amount of $ 10,000.
According to Al-Obaidi, “false contracts and contracts, exaggerated in their prices, employees who are not really present and operating expenses, investment projects and contract transfers are the biggest waste of Iraqi funds.”
But the biggest waste is “mismanagement, planning and politicization of the economy,” according to economist Salam Suhail.
“The thefts were very large, but the waste associated with mismanagement and planning is greater because corruption is related to mismanagement, overdependence on the public sector and government employment as well,” Suhail said.
Iraq had about 850,000 employees before 2003, whose number has grown to more than 4.5 million employees now, “most of them do not do any work,” according to Suhail, who said that most government departments have become “time and money drain centers” for citizens.
Suhail believes that it is possible to run Iraq with fewer than 500,000 public employees and transform the Iraqi economy into a “private sector” economy to avoid the great waste of resources and corruption associated with the government sector to a great extent.
“The issue is very complex,” says Suhail, adding: “I think that what was actually spent on services such as education, health and defense does not exceed 30 percent of Iraq’s budgets, while the rest is distributed” between the pockets of the corrupt and black holes of waste, mismanagement, dependence on consumption and import subsidies at the expense of manufacturing. The store”.
Suhail emphasizes that “the task of the finance minister will not be easy, and talking about the amount of waste and goods threatens the corrupt who are still very powerful.”
Iraqi lawmakers said there is a move to remove Iraqi Finance Minister Ali Allawi due to the delay in paying the salaries of government employees, while Allawi said the delay in disbursement is linked to approval. of the parliament to pass a law on internal loans.
