Harvest of years: the Iraqi economy after 13 years of occupation

Speaking of the fall of Baghdad and the collapse of the Iraqi state in its concept, and the entry of the US occupation forces and their allies in Iraq 2003 comes to a reminder of that terrible fall in both human and moral meanings by all standards, to establish anew phase that caused for the collapse of the system and the pillars of the political, economic and social state, and replaced all the concepts that may be linked to the state and established a demagogue system which is similar to those regimes that existed in the Middle Ages.
Iraq before entering the occupation forces to its territory was a state like all other countries of the region despite the blockade imposed on it since 1991, after the first Gulf crisis, and the economic system where it has a kind of self – sufficiency and stability, and the infrastructure was adequate, and the country has some kind of stability despite the circumstances that accompanied the blockade.
Since the entry of the American occupation forces in Iraq until the hour of its departure in 2011, the occupying forces worked to control its wealth and loot its wealth and domination of all forms of life, the period of the US occupation was characterized by rampant corruption and the absence of security and stability.
We recall, for example , but not exclusive to the charges directed to the American governor Paul Bremer , more than $ 8 billion loss, in which observers see as it has opened a wide door to talk about corruption in Iraq.
after the departure of the occupying forces from the land of Iraq, it has began indirect management stage by the US occupation clients, and customers of regional parties seeking to dismember Iraq tearing its unity and plundering its wealth, and all this was actually done with the help of high – level Iraqi figures in the governments that followed the departure of the occupation of Iraq.
in the era of the government of Nouri al – Maliki , the corruption operation was flourished and reached its maximum , and here, for example , recall the example of Russian arms deal in 2012 where bribes estimated at more than $ 200 million, and the deal involved on corruption cases pursued high – ranking officials in the government, and it was due to be paid by the mediators in the form of commissions to Iraqi officials for the ratification of a Russian arms deal worth more than $ 4 billion and $ 200 million.
According to official reports , information and media that were issued during the past year that the theft has been carried out of more than half a trillion dollars from the Iraqi state funds during the reign of former Prime Minister Nuri al – Maliki, with an estimated value of these funds more than half of oil revenues between 2003 and 2015 ,estimated at $ 800 billion.
the matter did not stop to this limitations but goes beyond than that when the government sought to hide the final accounts for the general budgets of the state, to cover up the size of the theft and corruption posed to the budget in the  subsequent fiscal years and Iraqi parliamentary sources confirm that Nuri al – Maliki was hiding about $ 20 billion from the general budget of the country each year, but the figure exceeded than that where it was hidden amount exceeded $ 850 million by al – Maliki and his government and its place was unknown .
Iraq , the owner of the largest fortunes in the world , by the virtue of the corrupt of the politicians and those with them who assumed the first positions for  13  years , the transparency international organization has been ranked Iraq as the third worst country in the world in terms of corruption in 2006, 2007 and 2008 – and the fourth worst country in the year 2009. the world Bank also put Iraq at the bottom of the list, an it is ranked as the second one among the most corrupt countries in the world.
and the American journal “Business Insider” said that the world Bank Iraq evaluated Iraq as the worst place in the world for private business in 2015,
if it dealt with the economic sectors, the situation is more worse noting that the financial crisis in Iraq has produced , which is the outcome of the accumulation of years of corruption for more than a decade ago, the people suffered from poverty by a large margin, and the spread unemployment of youth at rates above 25 percent, and administrative sagging in government departments and institutions, and to smuggle money out of Iraq, thus devastated country by politicians and sectarian quotas, and the release of the hands of the eternal enemy of Iraq which is Iran, to steal the resources of the country and its bounty directly or through its followers and militia that tear the body of Iraq.
the investigative investigation conducted by “Fairfax Media “and” Havengtin Post , revealed about thousands of documents “from the site of the company” Aunanwil “owned by an Iranian family, based in the Principality of Monaco, the investigation has dealt with what was described by transactions corruption under the oil contracts cover included high – ranking Iraqi officials.
and talk about the economic situation is prolonged, in our previous articles we dealt with the file of the licensing rounds in the Iraqi oil sector , which is one of the largest theft and looting in Iraq ‘s history, and also is the largest disaster for Iraq and the economy, especially that oil accounts for about 95 percent of state revenues, but the conditions of the chaos that has befallen Iraq, which was sought by internal parties to inflame it , prevented the disclosure or highlight on them, they were occurred because of a systematic exclusion of national figures, and flooding the country with economic, political and security crisis to form a cover that obscures attention from these abuses and thefts in the Iraqi state, estimated at hundreds of billions of dollars and reports indicate that losses of Iraq of smuggled and illegally exported oil abroad since 2003 , estimated at $ 120 billion, and the tip of the iceberg.
Add to the above that Iraq today is part of its territory under the control of terrorism, and the United Nations estimates indicate the number of displaced people in Iraq is about the three and a half million due to security developments in a number of cities and the displacement of the population , whether by armed militias or state regulation, especially in the last two years.
even the file of the IDP was not in safe from the corruption noting that numerous reports indicated that there are suspicions regarding amounts of money allocated for the displaced and despite after passing of the year and a half on the charges , but it is to this day nothing is known about them.
this is the tip of the iceberg of the lean years that prevailed in Iraq under the occupation and beyond it , we have observed during the above that rampant corruption was the basis of all the failure and the loss and plunder of the wealth of Iraq and its destiny, to the extent that those the corrupt were conspired on their country to serve external parties, and the loss of its territory ,and a loser was in this equation , but the simple Iraqi citizen, who was not safe for his life or his  food because of manipulation of the corrupt and the absence of the law, and now Iraq today is on the brink of economic collapse due to years of corruption and looting, but the question remains always on the table, will we see the accountability of the corrupt ?

Rawabet Research and Strategic Studies Center