Shatha Khalil *
The health sector in Iraq has suffered since the nineties of the last century of great deterioration, and then continued after the occupation in 2003 of the repercussions of the scheme targeted the main institutions and the basic pillars of the state, including the infrastructure of the health sector.
Administration and financial corruption are widespread in Iraq, as Transparency International organization classifies Iraq as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. However, the Iraqi government often criticizes the organization’s reports on corruption and considers it inaccurate and is based on information obtained through local and foreign companies failed to implement service projects in Iraq.
Experts confirm that the state of deterioration that controls this sector is part of that plan, which led to the emptying of the country of its medical skills after most of them migrated, while the deaths increased due to the deteriorating health situation.
Serious facts revealed by Omar al-Kubaisi, a coronary consultant, lit. General doctor of the former Iraqi Army and supervisor of postgraduate studies in cardiology at the National Commission for Specialized Medical Studies, revealed a set of facts that indicate a clear and dangerous plan to destroy the infrastructure of the health sector and system in Iraq.
Corruption deals in the Ministry of Health:
Adila Hammoud, the Minister of Health,to who the corruption has spread in the ministry since taking over the ministry . She is surrounded by many questions and wonders about turning it into relatives and close people, corruption contracts and financial and administrative corruption. She signed contracts worth millions of dollars while hospitals suffer from the scarcity of medicine and baby milk in cities which have been destroyed over the heads of its inhabitants, to come Portuguese slippers deal in the price of $ (27) dollars, while the helpless citizen is unable to afford the price of Panadol .
Observers confirmed a series of suspicious deals in the Ministry of Health, which are revealed from time to time, in the most difficult circumstances in a country where corruption was spread in all its institutions according to most international statistics, and this was confirmed by the Iraqi Health Minister by importing (26140) medical slippers , the minister was unable to justify it convincingly about buying an insole worth no more than $ 2 , buying it with a price of $ 27 and a $ 900 million contract that could have been built 20 health clinics , the question arises : in what way the minister thinks! Is she suitable to manage the most important ministry in the country?!
The hospitals in the country suffer from the shortage of medicines and medical devices. Iraqis feel pain over their daily lives, deprivation and destitution, in addition of neglecting primary and preventive health services and health centers, including maternity and childhood centers, vaccination programs and destroying the infrastructure of services related to human health, lack of drinking water, lack of sanitation, waste disposal, lack of electricity supply and infrastructure services, as well as failed drug policy, loss of control and inspection of medicine and food, and deterioration of the pharmaceutical industry.
The suspicious contract worth to ($ 23 million) to buy mattresses on beds in a country where the number of displaced people is more than the number of people living in their homes.
Previous leaks from the office of the Ministry of Health revealed a $ 8 million corruption deal involving Media and Kofia companies, linked to a member of the parliamentary health committee, and Iraqi Health Minister Adela Hamoud, with a 15 percent commission to equip the ministry with medical supplies and poor quality medicines .
Twelve of the bids were forwarded to GE Company in the amount of $ 400 million, including the importation of medical equipment, in addition to the corruption in the bids of supply of Oxygen at a cost of $ 45 million for the establishment of 22 laboratories.
Signing contracts with companies belong to one person where the Ministry of Health has signed several contracts with different companies, but belongs to one person, the owner of offices and companies of Noor al-Shamis (sunlight), and the Tower of Sadiq, and the gate of the south, and Sadiq, and Gilani, and that came after the agreement was agreed on the commission of the Minister, In the following contracts:
1. Medical gauze contract (45 in 45) where two out of five doctors signed the contract , one of them was rewarded by the Minister, appointed as assistant to the Director General of the City of Medicine, the value of the contract starting at (48) million dollars, and after the uproar of the media and complaint of the Health and environment Committee , the contract was reduced to $ 14 million, with a percentage of bribery to the vice chairman of the Parliamentary Health and Environment Committee.
2. The contract of ambulances referred to the same owner of offices and companies of Noor al-Shamis ( sunlight), the tender was submitted at (117500) dollars for one car, cars manufactured in Turkey, while German cars from the original companies priced at (120,000) dollars.
3. The contract of laboratory glassware was transferred at a price of $ 3.3 million. There is an investigation about the contract and the contract was suspended for a period of years due to the investigation, but the Minister ordered to continue the referral and release the amount after understanding with the owner of the company above noting that the materials included in the contract are more than necessary.
4. Medical Gawun contract ($ 1750000).
5. Medical threads contract for $ (1750000) dollars.
6. Contract of central cooling rooms with a value of (14.6) million dollars.
7. Contract of syringes (5 CC) for $ 3.5 million referred to Al-Gailani Company, knowing that the percentage of bribery on the above contracts was 15%.
Corruption in Iraq is not like corruption in other countries, not in terms of quantity and weight, and not in terms of the actor and in terms of type and not in terms of causes and in terms of the situation, corruption in Iraq is no longer an exception, but it has become the rule, and corruption in Iraq is practiced as a weapon in the raging war over power and the corruption in Iraq is measured in billions , and corruption in Iraq is not the result of the abuse of power for personal gain, according to Transparency International organization , but through the use of power to practice corruption and to use corruption to achieve power , and corruption in Iraq is no longer a shame , it has become licentious and legitimized , and those who practice it do not fear , but it is a matter of booty rather than dedication.
Some of the doctors in Iraq, who are outside the country, pointed out that the continuation of the scheme of displacement of medical competencies and health staff targeting them physically , aims to eliminate them and push them to emigrate and cover up the relationship of the huge rise in cases of tumors, distortions, projections and infertility related to the use of banned weapons of mass destruction, heavy metals, and Environmental pollution included in international and Iraqi studies.
In the same way, many western and eastern countries get specialized and non- specialized medical staff after graduation to cover their needs at the expense of the migration of Iraqi medical minds for example, the proportion of Iraqi doctors in a hospital in Sweden is more than 50% of the total number of doctors working in it.
Finally, Minister Adila must realize that medicine is a profession, a science and a behavior, and that the Iraqi citizen deserves a decent life.
And the Ministry of Health is one of the most important ministries that have a close connection with the human being, his health, comfort, tranquility, survival and existence without doubt, the achievement of any virtue and creativity in his progress; it will be calculated by all standards as a real renaissance of life which is the essence of the universe.
Economic Studies Unit
Rawabet Center for Research and Strategic Studies