Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) High Council of Women Affairs, November 2019. Photo: Encumeni xanman/FB
HEWLÊR-Erbil, Iraq’s Kurdistan region,— Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) High Council of Women Affairs said in a statement on Sunday that they rejected allegations of corruption made against them by two lawmakers in Iraqi Kurdistan Parliament.
“We in the High Council of Women Affairs reject all claims and accusations that we wasted governmental funds and properties and are ready for any administrative and legal inspection on the matter,” the statement read
“We wish those two respective lawmakers would have acted in accordance with Article 24, point one and Article 43 of the Kurdistan Parliamentary Bylaws and investigated the matter more before publishing their findings,” the statement added.
Earlier member of the Integrity, Parliament Affairs and Complaints Daban Muhammad Hussein and member of the Education, Higher Education, and Scientific Research Committee Ashna Abdullah Qadir, both of the Change Movement (Gorran), had launched an investigation into how the council’s budget was spent.
According to the lawmakers, the Council receives a budget of 720 million Iraqi dinars, which it is to use to combat violence against women and advocate for women’s rights in the Kurdistan Region.
During its investigation it uncovered 281,750,000 Iraqi dinars ($237,000) in suspicious expenses, including 3 million Iraqi dinars to translate a single report, 720,000 dinars on beverages, 3 million dinars on cosmetics, and 200 million in expenses claimed by members of the Council.
Seventy-five million dinars ($63,000) went unaccounted altogether with no receipts.
Kurdistan considered as the most corrupted part of Iraq. According to Kurdish lawmakers and leaked documents billions of dollars are missing from Iraqi Kurdistan’s oil revenues.
The ruling Barzani clan have been routinely accused by critics of amassing huge wealth from oil business for the family instead of serving the population. KDP party leader and ex-president Massoud Barzani remains the most powerful leader in the shadow according to analysts. Massoud’s son Masrour is the Kurdistan region’s prime minister and his nephew Nechirvan Barzani is president of Kurdistan.
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