The Iraqi Federal Integrity Commission confirmed today, Friday, that it has conducted operations which revealed that more than three billion dinars were not collected on behalf of the Dhi Qar Agriculture Directorate and the Agricultural Equipment Company in the province. The Government Communication and Media Office stated in a statement that "the team from the Dhi Qar Investigation Office, which moved to the Agriculture Directorate in the province, found after conducting investigations and audits that there was a wastage amounting to (1,935,719,494) dinars due to the Directorate's failure to collect debts owed by farmers from previous years for agricultural lease contracts, and its lack of following the legal procedures for collection."
The office added that "the team discovered that the Agricultural Equipment Company did not follow up on the modern irrigation systems supplied to farmers and their operational mechanisms, in addition to not tracking the payment of these amounts by farmers, which totaled (1,202,012,969) dinars," clarifying that "the team confiscated the original transactions for supplying farmers with those systems."
It further stated that "the original files regarding the receipt of machinery and equipment from the General Company for Agricultural Equipment were confiscated based on transactions involving fictitious agents without the knowledge of contract owners during the year 2018," pointing out that "the operation was carried out in collusion with the former branch manager, which resulted in wastage of public funds." In a related context, the team, in cooperation with the National Intelligence Service, managed to "seize (32) supply transactions for harvesters from the General Company for Agricultural Equipment," noting that "the owners of those transactions did not settle the government debts owed by them."
