Rudaw Federal Integrity: We can reach any official with a corruption file

[RJG]

Rudaw Federal Integrity: We can reach any official with a corruption file

one hour ago

Rudaw

 

IRAQ

Head of the Federal Integrity Commission, Haider Hanoun

Keywords: Federal Integrity Commission

Rudaw Digital

 

The head of the Federal Integrity Commission, Haider Hanoun, confirmed that the commission can reach any official accused of corruption “without embarrassment and without any approvals,” noting that the current government has been able to “lift all red lines.”

 

In an interview with Rudaw Media Network envoy to Dubai, Sankar Rahman, on Thursday (February 15, 2024), Haider Hanoun acknowledged that there are “challenges” currently, but stressed the ability to overcome them.

 

Regarding cooperation with the Emirates that they are visiting to participate in the World Government Summit in Dubai, he indicated that there is an accused in the process of being extradited, “He is Nawras Abdul Razzaq, who was the Director General of Babylon Health, as well as the accused Hamdiya Jaff, who was the Director General of the Iraqi Trade Bank, and we have 17 files.” It has all been accomplished. 

 

He also indicated that there is coordination and cooperation agreement with the Integrity Commission in the Kurdistan Region. 

 

Below is the transcript of the interview:

 

Rudaw: Why did you participate in this conference? What is its importance to you?

 

Haider Hanoun: Our participation in the World Government Summit is the goal of the Commission, even though it was a generous invitation from the UAE Audit Bureau. It is a timely participation because the Federal Integrity Commission is in the process of preparing a national anti-corruption strategy for five years from 2025 to 2030, in which we will take into account all that Other strategies have reached it, in addition to scientific development related to governance, artificial intelligence, and digital transformation in the direction of combating corruption. The conference will have important outcomes in the field of artificial intelligence, digital transformation, and electronic governance, and benefit from them in the field of combating corruption. The next strategy will be in partnership with the private sector, civil society, investigative journalism, as well as the citizen, and it is based on the legislation prepared by the Integrity Commission and put forward for legislation, which is very important. The first law is the right to access information law, which is a national federal law that concerns all parts of Iraq and benefits all citizens, whether in the governorates. Or in the region.

 

Rudaw: Will you implement the right to information law?

 

Haider Hanoun: The law has reached the Iraqi Parliament, and its first reading will take place next week. It passed from the Integrity Commission and was audited by the State Council, as well as voted on by the Council of Ministers and reached the House of Representatives. This law is necessary to pass because it gives the citizen the ability to obtain information and know where his money is spent, and this is useful for the citizen in all governorates or in the Kurdistan Region. Even a citizen who is searching for where his salary and allowances went will be able to obtain (information) with complete transparency, and where the problem lies in not disbursing his salary for months, as he will know the truth through this law that gives him the right to obtain information. We also have other laws, including the Law on the Right to Recover Proceeds of Corruption and the Second Amendment to the Federal Integrity and Illegal Gain Commission Law No. 30 of 2011, which is complementary to our law and gives wide scope to the Integrity Commission in combating corruption. 

 

We start from this conference to benefit greatly from the points through the dialogues that we held with the integrity bodies participating in the conference. We held a meeting with the UAE Minister of Justice, and there is a meeting with the head of the UAE Audit Bureau. This is also in the context of exchanging visions, as well as in the field of providing legal assistance in recovering funds and defendants who have been diagnosed in the UAE.

 

Rudaw: Are there Iraqi defendants present in the Emirates?

 

Haider Hanoun: Of course, among them is an accused currently in the process of being extradited, Nawras Abdel Razzaq, who was the Director General of Babylon Health, as well as the accused Hamdiya Jaf, who was the Director General of the Iraqi Trade Bank. We have 17 files regarding her, all of which have been completed and are in the process of judicial procedures and have reached the final stages, and we will get them. A result that pleases the Iraqi people. 

 

Rudaw: Are there defendants in other countries?

 

Haider Hanoun: All the countries with which we conclude memorandums of understanding, the basis of which is legal assistance in recovering our money and the accused, and another aspect is preventive, awareness-raising, educational, training and increasing capabilities, and our presence in this conference is in this regard, because it gives us greater capabilities and abilities to combat corruption and enter the world of technology that can To use it in this field, in addition to studying the risks of technology on the work of the Integrity Commission. Just as technological development brings us happiness, it also brings us sadness when corrupt people use technology in the opposite direction, and perhaps through it they can steal public money, because the more we develop our means of combating corruption, the more criminals and corrupt people will develop their means of stealing public money.

 

Rudaw: Iraq is one of the countries where the extent of corruption is large and is at the forefront of the countries that suffer from it. What have you done over the past years to confront corruption? 

 

Haider Hanoun: The Integrity Commission has been working on these files since its inception. Corruption is not only in the Republic of Iraq, but in the world, and when the United Nations Convention against Corruption was enacted, which Iraq ratified by Law No. 35 of 2007, 190 countries joined it, all of them suffering from corruption and abuse of power and public office. We have achieved many achievements. Our neighboring Arab countries and regional countries together did not achieve what the Integrity Commission achieved during the past year of its work, through seizure operations, money recovery, and the “Where did you get this from?” campaign. The National Strategy for Integrity and Anti-Corruption and the memorandums of understanding that were concluded, as well as crossing the red lines that previously existed. This government was able to lift all red lines. We can reach any official with a corruption file without embarrassment and without any approvals. 

 

Rudaw: Will you confront any official involved in corruption in Iraq? Or are there obstacles in reaching them? 

 

Haider Hanoun: Any official at this stage is not far from accountability and being held accountable and appearing before the judiciary as a result of our files being sent to him. Honest with you. I speak the truth, and God bears witness to that. There are no obstacles before the Integrity Commission. We are not saying that there are no challenges currently, but we are able to overcome them and those imposed by the corrupt. In the Integrity Commission, there are patriotic men who work in a patriotic spirit and defy difficulties for the sake of this great Iraq so that its pride remains at the forefront of the countries’ ranks.

 

Rudaw: Iraq is multi-sectarian and has great pharaohs. Can you confront anyone?

 

Haider Hanoun: There is no sectarianism in Iraq, but the corrupt have sanctified their actions and imbued them with a sectarian color or many other colors, the details of which we will not go into, in order to protect themselves from accountability. When he positions himself as a representative of a particular sect or clan and portrays access to him as access to his sect, he places obstacles in front of us so that we do not hold him accountable, but the Iraqi people currently know precisely that the Integrity Commission and the judicial institution in general only work in a national spirit and that all Iraqis are equal before the institutions, whether the Integrity Commission or the judiciary. There is no difference between an Iraqi and an Iraqi wherever they are found on Iraqi soil. 

 

Rudaw: Do you have relations with the Integrity Commission in the Kurdistan Region?

 

Haider Hanoun: We have coordination with the Integrity Commission in the region, and we have a cooperation and coordination agreement until they complete their work. We support the Integrity Commission in the Kurdistan Region so that it is strong, can withstand difficulties, and be able to cross red lines and hold the major corrupt people there accountable. We support her with all our capabilities. We also hope to penetrate the area of the region in order to help the Authority there with the area that belongs to it and the area that belongs to the Authority. Iraqi integrity works on all Iraqi soil, and we have the right to hold any corrupt person accountable wherever he is found.

 

Rudaw: In the Kurdistan Region as well?

 

Haider Hanoun: Even if it was in the Kurdistan Region.

 

Rudaw: Thank you very much.

 

Haider Hanoun: We thank you. We thank the channel and the free media that works with us in the field and conveys our word to the citizen and the people, as well as conveying to us the suffering of the people and serious corruption files. 

https://www.rudawarabia.net/arabic/middleeast/iraq/150220245

 

[NWGUY]

The head of the Federal Integrity Commission, Haider Hanoun, confirmed that the commission can reach any official accused of corruption “without embarrassment and without any approvals,” noting that the current government has been able to “lift all red lines.”

 

We will see if this is true.   If Maliki doesn't go down, this story is BS!  

[JonnyV]

44 minutes ago, NWGUY said:

The head of the Federal Integrity Commission, Haider Hanoun, confirmed that the commission can reach any official accused of corruption “without embarrassment and without any approvals,” noting that the current government has been able to “lift all red lines.”

 

We will see if this is true.   If Maliki doesn't go down, this story is BS!  

 

Maliki will not go down right away.  It will take time.  I think the Hague will be knocking on his door as opposed to an Iraqi or Middle Eastern Official since they are afraid of his power from all the money he has stolen.  

[NWGUY]

25 minutes ago, JonnyV said:

 

Maliki will not go down right away.  It will take time.  I think the Hague will be knocking on his door as opposed to an Iraqi or Middle Eastern Official since they are afraid of his power from all the money he has stolen.  

 

Yeah...Maliki is filthy rich from all the money he stole from Iraq.  I hope they nail him to a wall...now or later...no matter!  

[southbeach]

3 hours ago, NWGUY said:

The head of the Federal Integrity Commission, Haider Hanoun, confirmed that the commission can reach any official accused of corruption “without embarrassment and without any approvals,” noting that the current government has been able to “lift all red lines.”

 

We will see if this is true.   If Maliki doesn't go down, this story is BS!  

It’s bs anyway.  The totally corrupt GOI are backstabbing political cowards and their sovereignty is a joke.  Iran owns them.

[3n1]

if Haider Hanoun can reach out and bust all the corruptness in iraq , iraq will need to go to the farmers working the marshlands to form a goi .... same ol' circus different tent ..... letsroll  

[Longtimelurker]

Arrests are coming!

[Longtimelurker]

Crash is coming, fake ww3 is coming and..... drumroll..... the reset is coming!

[Longtimelurker]

And Trump!