New Reports On Corruption In Iraq’s Govt Contracting

  

Iraq’s government dominates the country. It gives out huge contracts every year which are manipulated by the ruling elite.

 

Tenders for projects usually don’t have competitive bidding but are given to specific companies linked to political parties. This is accomplished through a number of means such as setting qualifications that exclude most businesses or using emergency orders to give contracts to specific parties. Those firms then move most of the public money they receive out of the country using foreign real estate, offshore bank accounts, front companies and more while very little if anything is ever actually built.

 

This marks a shift from earlier years when parties had economic offices that helped companies get contracts in return for a percentage of the commission. Now the elite have created their own businesses or use friendly entrepreneurs to get the projects so that they can steal a larger share of the money.

 

Another tactic is to expand orders to get more money than was originally offered. Al Alam investigated public service projects in Diwaniya. It found that the provincial government added to them to inflate prices. First the contracts were given to companies connected to the ruling parties. Then change orders were issued to expand the projects again and again. A sewage deal for instance was originally set was for 218 billion dinars but then grew to over 1 trillion dinars and yet nothing has been finished. It simply acts as a way for the elite to steal funds from the state.

 

Government contracting has gotten so bad that firms that don’t even exist get projects. Al Mada found that companies that have no offices or workers were winning major deals in Ninewa. The money they were awarded was sent through a series of businesses so that it could never be found and traced. Again, the projects are never completed they just exist to loot.

 

These stories show that arresting people for graft will do nothing when the entire system is corrupt. As long as the political parties run the state they will do as they please to enrich themselves. They believe that the country and the people are there to serve them. Prime Minister Zaidi has said one of his top priorities is fighting corruption but he cannot change this dynamic. He can only make superficial moves to try to win domestic and international support that don’t actually change anything.

 

SOURCES

 

Al Alam, “”Change Orders and Additions”: Corruption Schemes via Legal Loopholes,” 7/2/26

 

Al Mada, “From Commission Rooms to Market Monopolies: How Political Forces became “Contracting Whales,”” 7/7/26

- “Ghost economy in Mosul: Companies with no real presence win contracts worth millions of dinars,” 12/1/25

- “Al-Zaidi’s Government Approves Package to Combat Corruption and Control Government Project Costs,” 7/6/26