The bold steps of Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi in the management of government work send hopes once again that the country can overcome its chronic problems that negatively affected the march of transition from the scourge of the siege to the era of democracy.
The American newspaper The Hill said in an article written by the regional director of the Middle East at the International Republican Institute in Washington, Patricia Karam, that the specter of corruption is the most prominent crisis of Iraq at all, although the country suffers from other problems, including rooted sectarianism and the system of "political plunder."
The writer asserts that the path to achieving meaningful reforms for Al-Kazemi will be long and bumpy, especially after the shocking assassination of security expert Hisham al-Hashemi, who is widely seen as a “warning shot” of Al-Kazemi.
After nearly two decades of turbulent transformation from the era of dictatorship to the aspiration for a democratic dawn, the system of government in Iraq still suffers from rampant corruption.
Despite the vast oil wealth that can benefit all Iraqis, the author believes that the Iraqi state system is designed primarily to launder oil revenues through an enlarged public sector for the benefit of political parties and the semi-governmental armed forces without any accountability.
New pressure
The Corona pandemic crisis and the drop in oil prices have imposed new pressure on the state, as well as the fragility of the infrastructure of public institutions such as hospitals and medical colleges, which is an inevitable result of the policy of wasting resources.
This was evident - according to the newspaper - during the current Corona crisis, as hospitals and private clinics were unable to receive the legions of the injured, and suffered from a clear lack of medical supplies and the lack of protective equipment for thousands of doctors, nurses and health sector employees.
The author believes that the inevitable decline in oil revenues made it impossible for the Iraqi government to maintain the remainder of its safety net, and any additional austerity measures are likely to ignite more anger in the street, because about half of the state budget goes to the salaries of government employees and employees State and pensions.
Therefore, the risks of turmoil and financial collapse are real in Iraq due to the intertwining of crises, which increases the street's mistrust in state institutions.
Quota system
The writer adds that the most difficult obstacle in the Iraqi scene is the quota system, which was adopted in 2003 and is considered the root of corruption, as it is a system that prioritizes the interests of parties over efficiency.
This system has led to a political culture that divides government authority among party members who are entitled to appoint about 800 positions in various ministries under government formation negotiations.
The newspaper asserts that with every election, every political party uses its ministry to employ more members and people involved in its ranks, which has led to the expansion of the wage block and linking access to the state-dominated labor market to the issue of party loyalty.
This policy also caused the number of public sector employees to swell from 850,000 in 2004 to more than 7 million in 2016, with partisan employees mainly benefiting.
In this way, political parties in Iraq were able to "take over" government institutions through sophisticated patronage networks, and "parallel institutions" that distorted the path of public office for personal gain.
While Al-Kazemi and his government team members should be praised - according to the author - for the "bold measures" they have taken, dismantling corruption networks that are devouring state resources will require further efforts.
And Iraq will need a qualitative shift and the realization that its problems are not only structural but cultural, since without a cultural transformation not subject to state supervision, and without strengthening the sense of accountability, no reforms can gain the necessary momentum.
The author concludes that for the first time in years in Iraq, one can cautiously commend the recent measures taken by the Al-Kazemi government to tackle the country's chronic problems, but there is a lot of work waiting for Iraqis before approaching victory in their battle against corruption.