Diwaniyah: The Federal Integrity Commission has announced the issuance of approximately 30 arrest and judicial search warrants targeting officials, employees, and contractors associated with the Diwaniyah Governorate. This move comes as a result of multiple allegations including profiting from contracts and agreements, bribery, embezzlement, price gouging, and violations leading to the wastage of public funds.
According to National Iraqi News Agency, the commission revealed in a press release that a team from the Diwaniyah Investigation Office successfully executed a major operation in the province. This operation dismantled a network accused of profiting from contracts and agreements, bribery, embezzlement, and misappropriation of public funds within the municipality directorate. The warrants target 30 individuals in various roles, including five former directors, six officials in the accounting and auditing departments, and the current director of the provincial accounts department. These individuals face charges related to the aforementioned allegations, and additional employees have been arrested for the crime of wasting public funds.
The commission confirmed that an arrest warrant was executed in collaboration with the Falcon Intelligence Cell against 15 employees and three contractors. These individuals are accused of supplying the Diwaniyah Municipality Directorate with inflated purchases and submitting invoices with inflated prices or for fictitious work. The confessions from the accused have led to the issuance of arrest warrants against five former directors. The current director and several former directors of the Diwaniyah Municipality have been summoned for questioning. The commission's teams are actively pursuing the remaining individuals to bring them to justice on charges including embezzlement, bribery, profiting from contracts and agreements, and misappropriating public funds.
The commission added that the operation resulted in the seizure of significant quantities of disbursement vouchers related to transactions within the municipality's directorate, totaling over nine billion dinars. Additionally, stamps attributed to employees in the auditing and accounting departments, procurement committees, and the audit and parks and gardens divisions were discovered, alongside luxury vehicles and sums of money.
The commission continued that a formal seizure report was prepared for the operations carried out. In accordance with Articles 315, 319, and 340 of the Penal Code, and Resolution 160 of 1983 as amended, the accused along with the incriminating evidence were presented to the investigating judges specializing in integrity cases. Consequently, the judges decided to detain the accused and impose travel bans on several members of the Diwaniyah Provincial Council linked to some of the accused.