Shafaq News- Dhi Qar

A surveillance camera project worth about 12 billion Iraqi dinars (roughly $9.2 million) is under suspicion of corruption, a lawmaker representing Dhi Qar Province said Saturday, alleging that a former provincial governor split the contract to bypass mandatory tendering thresholds.

Ali Saber told Shafaq News that the project, intended to supply and install an integrated network of surveillance cameras, cables, and cabinets for the Dhi Qar Police Command, was divided into two contracts of 6 billion dinars (about $4.6 million) each. “The split kept each contract below a 6-billion-dinar ceiling, under which governors may award contracts without full tendering procedures.”

The first contract covered cameras and cabinets, Saber said, while the second was assigned to a separate ministry to procure the cabling. That ministry declined to buy the cables on their own, he said, arguing that a surveillance system must be purchased as a single integrated unit because the cameras cannot operate without their connecting components and infrastructure. “The result was a partially installed system that cannot be fully used.”

Saber called the matter "one of the most prominent corruption and public funds waste cases in Dhi Qar,” and all legal evidence had been submitted.

Since the launch of the government anti-corruption campaign, Dawn Crackdown, on June 28, Shafaq News documented the arrest of more than 23 officials and employees and the dismissal of several directors-general on corruption charges in Dhi Qar, with investigations also examining the alleged manipulation of 40,000 residential land plots in Nasiriyah, the provincial capital, along with suspected financial waste in investment and health contracts.

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