Shafaq News- Babil

Iraq's Federal Integrity Commission said on Tuesday it had stopped the sale of 57 state-owned railway properties in Babil province to employees at a fraction of their value, preventing a loss of nearly 24 billion Iraqi dinars, about $15.8 million, in public funds.

The Babil railway department, part of the Transport Ministry, had valued the properties far below their real value and sold them to its own staff, in violation of Iraq's law on the sale and lease of state property, the anti-corruption body said in a statement.

Of the 57 properties, 31 were owned outright by the railway department, while 26 had been sold before being formally divided into separate plots. The commission put the loss it prevented at 23,986,390,000 dinars.

The investigation is continuing to identify those responsible for referral to the courts.

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