The anti-corruption campaign launched by Iraq's new Prime Minister Ali el-Zaidi after taking office on May 16 has turned into a large-scale operation targeting senior officials. The Iraqi High Judicial Council announced that the amount of cash seized in the investigation against Deputy Undersecretary of the Ministry of Oil for Refining Affairs Adnan el-Cumaili has reached approximately $86 million.
According to the Council's statement, 70 properties, 21 vehicles, and approximately 3 kilograms of gold jewelry were also seized in the investigation. Officials stated that the funds were related to waste in projects carried out by el-Cumaili and other individuals connected to the case.
El-Cumaili, who is also the chairman of the Iraq Northern Refineries Company, was detained on May 30 at his home in the town of al-Ishaki, north of Baghdad. The operation came days after Prime Minister el-Zaidi ordered a review of contracts signed by the government in recent years for evidence of corruption.
As part of the investigation, former governor of Salahaddin province, el-Cumaili's hometown, Raid el-Cuburi, was also arrested. At the time of his detention, el-Cuburi was serving as the province's health director.
First actions of the new government
Adnan el-Cumaili is the highest-ranking government official arrested on corruption charges since Prime Minister el-Zaidi took office. In June, Alaa Samir el-Cuburi, a senior official from the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity, was also arrested in Baghdad on charges of corruption and wasting public funds.
Prime Minister el-Zaidi also canceled the $764 million Baghdad International Airport development project on suspicion of corruption. As one of his first decisions upon taking office, he established the Supreme Council for the Integrity, Audit, and Recovery of Public Funds to combat corruption in the public sector and tender processes.
The council, which will be personally chaired by the prime minister, will be responsible for overseeing ministries, non-ministerial institutions, and provinces to prevent the waste of public funds and recover state assets. Iraqi government spokesman Haydar el-Abudi said in a press conference, "The Iraqi government and the prime minister view corruption as one of the most serious challenges threatening the Iraqi state and its political order."
Cautious optimism from experts
Although the process is still in its early stages, some observers view the operations with skepticism and say the campaign has not yet touched older, larger, or politically sensitive corruption files. Former head of the Iraqi Federal Integrity Commission, Musa Faraj, said in a statement to Al Jazeera, "I confess that this is the first time I have seen a collective anti-corruption effort chaired by the prime minister."
Faraj continued: "But my advice to the prime minister is to start with serious and large old files. At the top of these are the Central Bank's foreign exchange auctions from previous years, where corruption has reached tens of billions of dollars."
Structural problems and legal obstacles
The Iraqi Federal Integrity Commission estimated in March 2021 that approximately $240 billion had been smuggled out of the country since the 2003 US invasion. This figure corresponds to 32 percent of Iraq's revenues during that 18-year period.
Muhammed Rahiim el-Rubie, head of the Al-Nahrain Foundation for Transparency and Integrity, stated that recovering the stolen funds is "a very difficult process, if not impossible." El-Rubie said, "One of the reasons is Iraq's outdated legal system, which still largely follows the 1969 penal code. Most of the laws in this code do not cover such financial crimes committed after 2003. Even if they do, they are not proportionate to the scale and severity of the crimes committed."
A 2024 report by the United Nations Development Programme also noted a "persistent reliance on broad legal frameworks that may not fully match the severity of corruption" in Iraq. Galib el-Daami, a media professor at the university and former Integrity Commission employee, said in an assessment to Al Jazeera, "Corruption in Iraq is politically protected. Therefore, fighting it becomes a very complex task. It is directly linked to the nature and composition of the political system."
