Iraq says fugitive ex-governor embezzled aid for displaced

Iraq's anti-corruption commission says that more than $60 million of public funds were diverted by officials close to ex-governor of Mosul Nawfel Akoub including $10 million in aid for the displaced.

BAGHDAD - Around $10 million in aid for the displaced in northern Iraq's Nineveh province, where the Islamic State group was based, has been embezzled by its fugitive ex-governor, the country's anti-corruption commission said Tuesday.

A spokesperson for the Integrity Commission said that its investigators had uncovered "invoices from developers in Iraqi Kurdistan".

But, he added, "no receipt was found" for these debited sums, which were meant for the rehabilitation of two hospitals in the northern metropolis of Mosul, capital of Nineveh.

Many of the province's inhabitants are still displaced as public services have not been fully reestablished.

Currently, 1.6 million Iraqis are still crowded into camps for the displaced, of which 40 percent are originally from Nineveh, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

A total of 11.3 billion Iraqi dinars ($9.4 million) had been allocated to the Provincial Council by the Ministry of Migration and Displaced, according to the commission.

"It has been debited and doesn't appear in any provincial authorities' bank accounts or in the Provincial Council funds," he said.

"It was transferred to Kurdistan," an autonomous region where the sacked governor of Nineveh, Nawfel Akoub, is thought to be in hiding, along with several other officials wanted by Baghdad.

He has been on the run since a ferry sank in Mosul on Mother's Day in March, killing 150 people. The sinking of the ferry was a tragic blow to the city, as residents struggle to overcome years of devastation caused by the Islamic State terrorist group's occupation of the city.

At the time of the ferry's sinking, protesters accused the ex-governor of corruption and neglect, hurling stones at his vehicle during an official visit to the site of the incident.

Akoub fled and is currently on the run after an Iraqi court issued an arrest warrant and travel ban over his misconduct and corruption that led to the Mosul ferry disaster. Akoub was unanimously sacked by Parliament in March.

In April, the commission said that more than $60 million of public funds were diverted by officials close to Akoub from Nineveh's budget of $800 million. To date, only $6 million of those missing funds have been recovered by the government.

Some $40 million of those funds had been set aside to rebuild Mosul following the drawn-out, highly destructive battle to oust the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group from the city. IS had used Mosul as its de facto "capital" in Iraq from mid-2014 to July 2017.

Graft is endemic across Iraq, which ranks 168th out of 180 countries in Transparency International's annual Corruption Perceptions Index.

Since 2004, a year after the US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein, almost $250 billion of public funds has vanished into the pockets of shady politicians and businessmen, according to parliament.