4:00 p.m. Iraqi time.."Ghosts" swallow 10 billion dollars a year out of one pocket

Shafaq News/ It is no exaggeration to say that the corruption of border crossings - that the Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi has pledged to confront, is one of the biggest obstacles to the process of change and reform, as it puts him directly in the face of "Ghosts", as he described lately, which will not be easy to overcome.

Previous governments, including the government of Adel Abdul Mahdi and the Iraqi parliament, have tried -half-heartedly- in the previous years to seize this file, given the huge amount of money generated by border crossings, most of which go to armed forces, gangs, and tribal militants, while only little has reached the state’s stumbling treasury.

Many resources estimated the waste of at least 10 billion dollars, while it is believed that a few hundred million dollars end up in the Iraqi treasury from these ports. Excluding the oil sector, the revenues of border crossings with Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, and Kuwait, as well as air crossings, taxes, customs duties, and others, make up the bulk of the country's revenues; along with the billions flowing into the state’s treasury from visiting the holy shrines.

The corruption of border crossings has sensitive internal dimensions as well as an equally dangerous regional dimension, as border crossings are a geographical meeting point for Iraq with its surroundings. For example, the Safwan crossing connects it with Kuwait, Traibeel with Jordan, Arar and Jadida Arar with Saudi Arabia, and Al-Waleed with Syria, while with Iran, Iraq is connected by Al-Shaib, Al-Manthariyah, Al-Shalamaja and Zarbatiya, as well as the crossings connecting Kurdistan with neighboring countries, and the port of Basra, which connects it to the Gulf waters. 

Jamal Kocher, a member of the parliamentary finance committee, told Shafaq News agency, “there is no accurate statistics on the size of the revenues of border crossings, but they are estimated annually between 10-12 billion dollars; only 2 million dollars go to the state’s treasury, while the rest goes to the pockets of corrupt”.

In May, a similar figure was traded. "Real imports of border crossings exceed 10 billion dollars annually", Al-Fateh Alliance MP Fadhil Al-Fatlawi told Shafaq News Agency, adding that, "Unfortunately, this money has not been registered in the general budget of the Iraqi state, as the government is only given 1 billion dollars of the annual border crossings' revenues”.

Unofficial estimates suggest that the money embezzled and wasted in the border crossing file could be around 100 billion dollars since 2003.

Mayada Al-Najjar, a member of the parliamentary economic and investment committee went further, revealing on May 19th that some border crossings were out of the control of the Iraqi government after 4:00 p.m.; after the end of official working hours.

Al-Najjar revealed, “There are border crossings not registered with the government; their imports go to political or tribal entities”. Also added, “The revenues of the border crossings - that are uncontrolled by the state, go to informal political and tribal entities”.

In light of the severe deficit in Iraq’s budget, which is worsening for several reasons, including corruption, the damages of COVİD-19 pandemic, and the collapse in oil production and prices; the issue of the revenues of border crossings is a potential lifeline for Al-Kadhimi’s government. Lawmakers and economists have already called on the government to take control of "all border crossings" because it would help Iraq overcome the repercussions of the budget deficit.

"There will be a close campaign to restore the crossings, and we will fight ghosts," Al-kadhimi said during a meeting with media figures and journalists in June. And explained, "There are billions of dollars lost annually in the crossings; there are gangs, groups, bandits and powerful people who sometimes control the ports and at the expense of the state”.

Al-Kadhimi's main dilemma is that the border crossings corruption file is fully in his hands, as no real efforts have been made to dismantle this minefield to facilitate the work of the current government, Kocher's statement confirms, "Successive governments have not been serious about fighting corruption and controlling border crossings”.

The other side, which is no less important in the file of border crossings, is that tending to this issue may put Al-Kadhimi in the face of tension and clash with the forces that may be affected by the tightening of the grip of transparency on the border crossings, and therefore Al-Kadhimi is doomed to the need to reach special understandings with political, partisan and parliamentary forces before proceeding with the dismantling of these border packages.

Some political parties benefit from the resources of border crossings, so it will not be easy for them to accept the idea of giving up some of their important financial resources for some potentially formal gains and will expect Al-Kadhimi to take it with convincing temptations within the framework of the idea of quotas that run counter to the priorities of the current government.

If these settlement approaches do not succeed, Al-kadhimi would resort to a more confrontational option, as there is speculation that the Prime Minister may resort to the Iraqi counter-terrorism services (ICTS), led by Abd Al-Wahab Al-Saadi, to seize border crossings, as the file affects national security and is swaying funds on organizations and forces that may pose a security threat to the state.

The escalation in this dossier is likely to spark security tensions with Iraqi forces believed to be linked to Iran's interests; if they feel the dangers of harming their revenues -even if they are illegal, especially since they are feeling the burden of U.S. pressure on them and their "Iranian ally" as part of the current U.S. administration's policy of trying to stifle Tehran economically.

"The processing of the border crossing file is only done by restricting the administration of the crossings by the state, the presence of a military force capable of confronting the corrupt, transforming the system of work from manual to electronic, and replacing the existing staff at the crossings periodically" Kocher said.

In this context, a meeting was held between Al-Kadhimi and the head of the border crossing authority Omar Al-Wa’ili; during which it was agreed on measures to tighten control of the crossings, develop plans leading to strengthening the revenues, and prevent any outside interference aimed at harming the state's capabilities.

In September, the border crossing authority responded to Kocher's remarks, as he noted “some border crossings were under the control of what can be described as militias after the end of official staff working hours". The border crossings authority mentioned, "All federal border crossings, land, sea, and air, are under the control of the Border Crossing Authority except those in Kurdistan as they are not under the control of the Federal Government".

In other words, Al-Kadhimi will have to put ICTS -if he commits to this path, in confrontation with Iranian-funded militias, just like last month's "Raid Night", which was the scene of an armed group affiliated with the Iraqi Kata’ib Hezbollah, and triggered a tense atmosphere in Baghdad for days; eventually led to the government's determined efforts to hold a reconciliation meeting and to establish a dialogue between ICTS and Kata’ib Hezbollah.

There is information that a crisis management cell is being set up to include representatives of the ministries of Defence, Interior, and Finance, as well as the intelligence service, to seize the border crossings file.

However, the task is not easy and requires accurate calculations - which Al-Kadhimi mastered, but have no guaranteed results.

However, the Iraqi government spokesman Ahmed Mulla Talal said recently that Al-Kadhimi’s government is working to "impose the prestige of the state on these border crossings".

Another aspect of this file is no less sensitive and is linked to border crossings run by the Authorities of Kurdistan; therefore, Al-Kadhimi's attitude about the crossings may provoke a dispute with Erbil, which oversees border crossings with both Turkey and Iran. The crossings along Iran's border are Haji Omeran, Bashmakh, and Pervez Khan.

The Government of Erbil is ready for dialogue with Baghdad on the border crossing authority, provided "the Iraqi government can impose effective control over the rest of the crossings, airports, and ports" Shafaq News agency recently quoted a source in Kurdistan government as saying "Kurdistan’s government is ready to engage in a legal debate in this regard in which the rights of our people are guaranteed”.

Therefore, the debate over border crossings administered by Kurdistan’s authorities is also linked to the resolution of other contentious issues with Baghdad; including addressing financial disputes, oil revenues, salaries of employees, article 140 of the constitution, and control of the so-called disputed areas, all of which could be obstacles to the dialogue that has been going on between Erbil and Baghdad for months, if the issue of border crossings is added now without an open mentality aimed at addressing, not complexity.