(Adds quotes, details, background)
By Aseel Kami
BAGHDAD, Oct 16 (Reuters) – Iraq’s government removed
central bank chief Sinan al-Shibibi on Tuesday over a corruption
inquiry opened by lawmakers into bank officials suspected of
abusing dollar sales.
Shibibi’s dismissal will do little to reassure investors who
fear the government is trying to curb the autonomy of
financial institutions from the central bank to the stock
market. Last year Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki won a court
ruling that put the bank and other independent entities under
cabinet supervision.
The cabinet appointed Abdul-Basit Turki, the head of the
government spending watchdog, Iraq’s Board of Supreme Audit, to
run the central bank “until further notice” over the corruption
charges, Maliki’s media adviser Ali al-Moussawi said.
Lawmakers investigating corruption in the central bank say
they found violations in dollar sales by the bank for importing
goods, false documents for importers, and a lack of control of
how dollar auctions were monitored.
An independent watchdog is now studying those findings, but
no official charges have been filed, according to the spokesman
of the Integrity Commission.
“The government knows its interests and what it sees as best
for its interests, this is up to the government and we are not
objecting,” Mudher Kasim, deputy governor of the central bank,
said on Tuesday.
The corruption charges are the latest chapter in a
long-running dispute between the government and its allied
lawmakers and the central bank board over the institution’s
autonomy.
Since an inconclusive 2010 election, opponents of Maliki, a
Shi’ite, have accused him of failing to fulfill power-sharing
agreements in Iraq’s delicate sectarian and ethnic balance among
Shi’ite, Sunni and Kurdish political blocs. He accuses them of
blocking his attempts to make the government work.
Some lawmakers said the central bank should stay independent
despite the dismissal.
“The government attempted to put this important body under
its supervision and its administration,” said Sharif Sulaiman, a
Kurdish lawmaker in the financial committee. “This institute is
under parliament supervision and it should stay like that.”
Maliki dismisses criticism among Sunnis, Shi’ite and Kurdish
parties in his power-sharing government that he is shoring up
his own position by trying to control government institutions,
including the central bank and security ministries.
Since the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein in
2003, Iraq has struggled to crack down on corruption especially
as oil revenues increased as the petroleum industry benefited
from foreign investment and bolstered production.
Despite its oil wealth, Iraq still needs investment in
almost every sector from housing to power generation and
hospitals.
(Reporting by Aseel Kami; Editing by Patrick Markey and David
Stamp)
