Shafaq News- Al-Muthanna

Iraq's Federal Integrity Commission, the country's anti-corruption watchdog, said it had arrested five staff members of the office supervising a state construction project over alleged violations in the renovation of a teaching hospital in the southern province of Al-Muthanna.

The five —three engineers and two surveyors— are accused of deliberately causing financial harm to the public body that employs them, according to the commission.

The suspects work in the office of the project's resident engineer, the unit responsible for overseeing the works on site. An investigation team from the commission's Al-Muthanna office found “legal and technical violations” in the rehabilitation of Al-Hussein Teaching Hospital in Samawah, the provincial capital, along with discrepancies between the project's estimated cost and the submitted price.

The team also documented delays and stalled work despite a contract addendum that granted four extra months to finish the project. Some completed installations had stopped functioning, including cooling units, disrupting hospital services for outpatients and admitted patients alike.

On August 28, a source told Shafaq News that the commission had detained between three and five suspects linked to the Al-Muthanna Health Directorate over alleged irregularities in the same hospital's rehabilitation.

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