Iraq’s oil Inspector General fails to investigate loss of $250m by SOMO: MP
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Oil Ministry’s Office of the Inspector General has failed to investigate and find the causes that led to the waste of $250 million by the state oil-marketing company SOMO, a member of the Oil and Energy Parliamentary Committee, Jamal al-Mahmoudawi, said on Sunday.
The committee obtained information and documents which shows that Iraq’s State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO) company has paid delay penalties due to a delay in loading crude oil tankers from the southern export ports and exceeded $250 million for 2015, 2016, and 2017, according to Mahmoudawi.
“Although two years have elapsed since the issuance of this report, the Ministry of Oil has not identified the faulty source of these fines which we believe the previous administration of the oil marketing company bears full responsibility for,” he said in a press statement Kurdistan 24 received.
The Office of the Inspector General of the Ministry of Oil had opened an investigation into the matter for over a year. The results of the investigation have not yet been announced, “despite the importance of the investigation of this financial loss.”
Iraq is the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) second-largest producer just after Saudi Arabia and currently has an output below its maximum capacity of nearly five million bpd.
“Doubts and suspicions in the work of the Office of the Inspector General as investigations are often opened without leading to any results, indicating the likelihood of direct bargaining or pressure on the work of the Office of the Inspector General,” the committee member added.
Mahmoudawi noted that the lack of completion of the administrative investigation by the Office for over a year “indicates a very clear imbalance in the work of the Office of the Inspector General of the Ministry of Oil now that the inspector general’s offices have become part of the corruption system and not a means to combat it.”
The embattled Middle Eastern nation continues to rank high on Transparency International’s list for corruption, fraud, and mismanagement of state institutions.
According to the organization’s 2018 Corruption Index, Iraq ranks 168th, the 12th most corrupt country out of a total of 180.
In March, Iraq’s oil exports averaged 3.37 million bpd, down from 3.62 million bpd in February, as bad weather disrupted the loading.
In early January, Baghdad reaffirmed its commitment to cut annual oil production as per an agreement between OPEC and additional non-member states such as Russia – known together as OPEC+ – to curtail global supply and bolster prices.
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany