The Parliamentary Integrity Committee announced on Sunday that the next stage will witness voting on the draft law to recover funds smuggled out of the country.
Committee member Alia Nassif told Shafaq News Agency, “The House of Representatives is working to approve the law to recover funds smuggled abroad, and the next stage will witness voting on the law, which will further assist the Federal Integrity Commission in the process of recovering funds smuggled abroad.”
She added, “The law contains many articles that enable the Integrity Commission to carry out its procedures mainly in coordination with ministries and state institutions to recover money and corrupt people wanted by the Iraqi judiciary.”
Nassif pointed out that “approval of this law in the House of Representatives will help the Integrity Commission to easily conclude agreements with countries of the world, recover smuggled funds, and arrest the corrupt.”
On Wednesday (February 7, 2024), the Iraqi Integrity Commission and the Lebanese Anti-Corruption Commission concluded a memorandum of understanding that includes cooperation in recovering smuggled funds and extraditing convicts.
On May 3, 2023, the Integrity Commission and the Central Bank of Iraq concluded an agreement to unify efforts to pursue wanted defendants and recover looted and money laundering funds.
At a time when the country is suffering from the scourge of corruption that has struck all government institutions, no real figure is known for the amount of smuggled funds, as government figures conflict about the reality of this money that has depleted the country’s wealth.
The former President of the Republic, Barham Salih, announced that he was submitting a draft law to recover the proceeds of corruption to Parliament, to recover about 150 billion dollars smuggled abroad after the year 2003, while the Integrity Commission estimated the volume of funds smuggled so far to be approximately 350 billion dollars, equivalent to 32% of the amount. Iraq’s revenues during 18 years.
shafaq.com
