Investigating Committee over CBI corruption issues suspends its performance
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The parliamentary committee formed to investigate the corruption issues in the Central Bank of Iraq, suspended its performance and report.
The spokesperson of the committee, Majida al-Timimi, stated to Iraqi News (IraqiNews.com) on Tuesday “After completing some phases of the investigation with the officials of the CBI, the parliament chairmanship has formed a new investigation committee that comprises unqualified persons to conduct the investigation without consulting us which resulted in suspending our investigation process and report.”
“The committee did not receive the repot of the Financial Supervision Department and we were surprised by issuing an arrest warrant against the Governor of the CBI, Sinan al-Shibi where we reserve this procedure,” she added.
“We cannot let the unqualified persons to evaluate the performance of the CBI because it preserves the national economy of Iraq,” she concluded.
Earlier, the Council of Ministers tasked the head of the Financial Supervision Department, Abdul Basit Turki, to run the Iraqi Central Bank as a substitute for the current Governor of the ICB, Sinan al-Shibibi.
The Iraqiya Satellite Channel quoted the Advisor of the Premier, Ali al-Musawi, as saying “The Council of Ministers decided to task Turki to run the ICB till further notice.”
It is worth mentioning that a source from the Parliamentary Committee tasked to investigate the corruption cases in the Iraqi Central Bank revealed that “The Governor of the ICB, Sinan al-Shibibi, called the Premier, Nouri al-Maliki, to dismiss four Directors in the Bank for their involvement in corruption cases.”
The source stated to IraqiNews.com “Shibibi have asked Maliki since three years to dismiss the four directors for they are responsible of the corruption taking place in the ICB yet Maliki rejected.”
“One of the investigation judges issued an arrest warrant against Shibibi but the UNAMI, the US Embassy in addition to the Presidency as well as some of the political leaders interfered and called the head of the Supreme Judicial Council, Midhat al-Mahmoud, who was not informed about the warrant,” the source added.
“Mahmoud issued an order to cancel the warrant and punished the judge who issued it considering arresting Shibibi as impacting the sovereignty of the country,” the source concluded.