Funds Transfer related to dissolved National Council's account revealed corruption: Assets Recovery

INA-  Baghdad


The Iraqi Fund for Assets Recovery detected corruption on Wednesday by taking more than half a billion dinars out of the dissolved National Council's account.  
 
"After receiving information about the existence of funds belonging to the former National Council, they were transferred to Al-Rasheed Bank - Salhiya branch," said Ayman Daoud, the deputy head of the fund, in a statement obtained by the Iraqi News Agency (INA). He also mentioned "the formation of a team worked in Al-Rasheed Bank, to investigate the funds, balances and current accounts of the dissolved National Council."

The branch management carried out twelve cash withdrawals totaling (191,715,508) dinars, as well as a final balance withdrawal of (406,388,649) dinars, before the account was ultimately emptied, he continued, pointing out that "all these operations were conducted during August 2003." This was discovered after reviewing and auditing the bank transactions of the account.

The transfer of funds appeared within the statement of daily transactions, meaning that it can be transferred to another unknown account, he explained. "The team concluded that the amount was not marked to any government agency or that there was a notice of the amount," he said.

He emphasized that "the balance of the total account indicated on 9/4/2003 must have been transferred to the Ministry of Finance, after the National Council became a dissolved institution and no banking operations should be conducted on the account, which indicates suspicions of corruption represented by seizing the balance of the Council's account illegally." He also pointed out that "the statement of daily transactions of the Council's account shows that the last banking movement was on 3/4/2003 during which the amount of five hundred million dinars was deposited."

In his statement, he said, "the branch manager, authorized individuals, and current account and accounting officials bear responsibility." He also mentioned that, in accordance with the recommendations made by the team, the file was forwarded to the Commission of Integrity which will examine the possibility of embezzling state funds and will contact the Ministry of Finance to initiate an administrative investigation.