CoI summons former advisor for mismanagement of public funds
Shafaq News / The Federal Integrity Commission (CoI) announced on Thursday the issuance of a summons against an advisor to the former Minister of Agriculture and the chairman and members of the Estimation Cost Committee within the ministry, accusing them of intentionally causing harm to the finances and interests of the entity they work for and are associated with by virtue of their positions.
According to a statement, a judge from the Rusafa Investigation Court, which specialized in cases of integrity, money laundering, and economic crime, issued a summons against the former advisor to the Minister of Agriculture for squandering public funds. The case involves the General Company for Agricultural Supplies in the ministry, which transferred a contract to supply 50,000 tons of urea fertilizer, with a total amount reaching $26,000,000, to a company in the United Arab Emirates.
The statement further detailed that the contract's urea price was set at $520 per ton from a Saudi origin to Umm Qasr Port.
However, the Estimation Cost Committee at the Ministry of Agriculture estimated the ton's price at $393, based on global prices.
Consequently, the estimated price per ton amounted to 472,080 dinars, while the purchase price reached 630,000 dinars, resulting in the squandering of public funds.
The commission indicated that the investigative judge decided to open a case against the Iraqi Islamic Bank for legal action due to discrepancies amounting to $10,000,000 in the amount of foreign transfers opened in the bank to enter the currency auction.
It emphasized that the discrepancy was due to differences between the amounts in the commercial statements for the purpose of opening internal documentary credits and between the amounts in the commercial statements and Swifts (issuing credits) for opening external documentary credits.
Moreover, the judge decided to summon five other defendants, including the chairman and members of the Estimation Cost Committee within the ministry, as well as recording statements from the legal representative of the Ministry of Agriculture. The issuance of the summons was per the provisions of Article 340 of the Penal Code.
