Source: International Crises Group
Baghdad/Washington/Brussels, 26 September 2011: Spreading corruption threatens to undermine the significant progress Iraq has made toward reducing violence and strengthening state institutions.
Failing Oversight: Iraqs Unchecked Government, the latest report from the International Crisis Group, examines the steady erosion of the credibility of Prime Minister Nouri al-Malikis government resulting from the failure to safeguard institutions against corruption and abuse. This, along with the related problems of service delivery, constitutes a serious threat to the legitimacy of state institutions and is giving strong ammunition to Malikis critics.
The revolutions that have spread throughout the Middle East and North Africa since December have given new impetus and a sense of urgency to the call for better governance in Iraq, warns Joost Hiltermann, Crisis Groups Middle East and North Africa Deputy Program Director. To bolster its faltering legitimacy, Malikis government will have to launch a vigorous anti-corruption campaign, improve service delivery and create checks and balances in the state system.
As violence spread following the 2003 U.S. invasion, and in an environment of escalating kidnappings, explosions and assassinations, public services were thoroughly devastated, and Iraq witnessed an explosive and alarming rise in corruption. Longstanding projects were abandoned overnight, and judges and parliamentarians were targeted. Oversight agencies, which should have been less exposed to risk because of their lack of direct contact with the general population, were forced to roll back their operations, leaving state institutions without effective safeguards against corruption or abuse. As a result, state output declined dramatically for a number of years, even as the annual budget steadily increased due to elevated oil prices. The states paralysis contributed to the proliferation of graft, nepotism and other criminal activity throughout the bureaucracy.