Al-Kazemi considers the financial crisis an "opportunity" to confront mismanagement and corruption in Iraq

[yota691]

Al-Kazemi considers the financial crisis an "opportunity" to confront mismanagement and corruption in Iraq

 

 

 01/20/2020 08:14:28

 

Shafak News / Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi said on Wednesday that the financial and economic crisis, despite the challenges it imposed, was considered an "opportunity" to confront mismanagement and corruption that is rampant in state departments and institutions.

Al-Kazemi said during his meeting with members of the Parliamentary Health and Environment Committee today, that the National Committee for Health and Safety of the National Authority will witness an enhancement of the expertise of doctors and specialists to provide their enhanced scientific vision for the current efforts.

He said, according to a statement issued by the Iraqi government, "We are following daily, around the clock, all the details of the confrontation and national efforts to reduce the effects of the pandemic, and we are holding continuous meetings in order to overcome any obstacle that may arise in the way of treating the injured, and in order to limit the spread of the disease."

Al-Kazemi added that "the government apparatus is working with all its efforts and integrated coordination, in order to support the needs of the Ministry of Health, and in order to enable health and medical staff to provide their services, after these staff showed a performance that is less than its dedication to the duty, despite all the challenges, difficulties and lack of supplies. "

And the Iraqi cabinet decided in a session held on Tuesday to strengthen the measures to combat the Corona virus by 50 billion dinars.

The first deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, head of the Parliamentary Crisis Cell, Hassan Al-Kaabi had expressed, earlier in the day, his "severe" surprise that the Ministry of Finance had allocated 50 billion dinars to the Ministry of Health to confront the Corona virus after "it was too late" and the death of hundreds of Iraqis due to lack of oxygen And the lack of beds, medical supplies and the required medical equipment in the country's hospitals.

The Prime Minister added that "the financial and economic crisis posed a new and added challenge to the efforts to confront the pandemic, but it is an opportunity to strengthen the solid resolve with which the Iraqis face their crisis, just as it is a real arena to confront mismanagement and corruption."

The Iraqi government is struggling to secure employee salaries and other operating expenses due to the collapse in oil prices due to the Corona pandemic, which has paralyzed large sectors of the world economy. The country relies on revenue from the sale of crude to finance 95 percent of the country's expenditures.

And the Iraqi Finance Minister Ali Allawi, had warned, in statements to Agence France-Presse, at the end of last June, that the Iraqi economy may face "shocks that it will not be able to deal with" unless reform measures are adopted in less than a year, stressing that it will have to 40 million Iraqis to submit to a tight austerity policy that may last for "two years."

Projections indicate that the Iraqi economy will face a 10 percent contraction during the year.

With one out of every five Iraqis receiving government aid, the bill becomes heavier for the country that depends on paying all its expenditures on oil sales revenue.

And at the beginning of last June, when pensions were deducted in the first steps of the government austerity policy, the protest was unanimous against Allawi and Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kazemi, even within the parliament that is usually mandated to approve reforms, especially the fight against corruption that led to the evaporation of more than 450 billion Dollars of public money since 2003.

[Calijim]

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