Maleki's Powers To Change.

In the post-Saddam political leadership, the PM is the highest executive authority, and Maleki is aided by two deputy PMs: one Sunni, Salam al-Zowba'i, in charge of security; and one Kurdish, Barham Saleh, in charge of the economy including the energy sector (see down21IraqWhoMay21-07).

The President of the Republic, Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani, a liberal and secular figure, heads a three-man Presidential Council which has two Vice Presidents: a top official of the ailing 'Abdul-'Aziz al-Hakim's Shi'ite Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC), 'Adel 'Abdul-Mahdi, another liberal figure who is close to Talabani and whose family originally was Sunni from one of Saudi Arabia's tribes; and a progressive Sunni Islamist Tareq al-Hashemi. The Parliament Speaker is a Sunni, Iyad al-Samarra'ie, aided by two deputies, one Shi'ite and one Kurdish.

In recent weeks, Maleki has capitalised on his considerable executive powers and concentrated on efforts to change the political system from being based on "consensus democracy", which he calls an obstructive power-sharing formula for sectarian and ethnic quotas, to one of "real democracy based on the rule of the majority". He built up this new conviction on the basis of his victory in the Jan. 31 provincial polls in which he won a major following thanks to his shift from sectarian to nationalist and secular values (see the background in rim1-IraqMaleki-Jan19-09).

However, these efforts are being interrupted by a series of corruption scandals affecting his cabinet. One of these involves a Shi'ite ally, 'Abdul-Falah al-Sudani, who on May 25 resigned as trade minister after parliament summoned him to answer questions about corruption and mismanagement in the ministry. On May 27, Maleki's office said it would take over administration of the ministry's affairs until a new minister was named. This ministry oversees a food ration card programme, which most Iraqis use to buy heavily subsidised food items like rice, sugar and cooking oil. On May 30 Sudani was arrested while flying to the UAE (see below).

On May 27, Iraq's Integrity Committee which monitors government corruption said only 34 members of Iraq's 275-seat parliament had submitted their mandatory financial disclosure forms.

Parliament and PM Maleki had announced anti-corruption campaigns in recent weeks in an effort to curtail widespread corruption in the government. Maleki, according to the commission's report, was among the officials who had submitted a disclosure form. But press reports point to the involvement of more than 1,000 government officials at various levels in many cases of corruption.

Sudani's case has been particularly embarrassing to Maleki. Sudani was the first casualty of what was expected to be a significant turn-over in Maleki's cabinet as part of the government's campaign against corruption. Sudani faced a non-binding no-confidence vote by parliament on May 26. Sudani belongs to a wing of Maleki's Da'wa faction. Sudani had submitted his resignation to Maleki on May 14, two days before his appearance before parliament. But a statement released by the government on May 25 said Maleki put off accepting it so that parliament could question Sudani before he stepped down.

Maleki, who has received generally poor marks for his efforts to curb corruption in his government, has made fighting corruption the focus of his public speeches during the past two months. In the previous week, Maleki said he planned to make extensive changes to his cabinet, but he did not offer details. The Trade Ministry's duties include the oversight of various imports, including food staples, automobiles and construction materials. During Sudani's tenure there were frequent shortages, and some of the goods were distributed long after their expiration dates, arousing widespread public anger.

Critics on May 26 were quoted as saying that, when the food became available, it was often inedible. The media quoted "Umm 'Ali, a 47-year-old homemaker" in Baghdad, as saying: "I cannot consume the items". Abu Mustafa, a merchant who receives supplies from the Trade Ministry, was quoted as saying he rarely got deliveries on time and often received spoiled food, including sugar which had turned black, adding: "We sell them and buy other items from the black market. In general, I do not get more than five items out of nine each month". He said: And beyond "the lack in quantity" was "the problem of bad quality. People complain because the food they receive is not fit for human consumption". Some other merchants said they had resorted to burning spoiled food publicly to prove to people that they were not trying to pass off the goods as being fresh.

Sudani had forcefully denied allegations of corruption, though he said honest mistakes had occurred from time to time. His ministry had said some of the fraud accusations had been concocted by disgruntled former employees, who themselves had been corrupt. The allegations against the ministry include accusations that two of Sudani's brothers, who were employed by the ministry as guards, had received millions of dollars in kickbacks on imported food staples. In April, the brothers were involved in a shoot-out with Iraqi security forces who had accompanied anti-corruption officials to arrest several Trade Ministry employees. Only one employee, the ministry's spokesman, was taken into custody then. One of the minister's brothers, Sabah al-Sudani, has been arrested. The second, Majid al-Sudani, remains at large. The government said at least seven other Trade Ministry officials had been charged with various corruption-related offenses.

Sudani's Arrest: Sudani was detained on May 30 after a flight he was taking to Dubai was ordered back to Baghdad. Sa'edi said an arrest warrant had been issued for the former trade minister in the morning of May 30 and that he would be held pending a trial. But only hours after Sudani was detained, his defenders in parliament were questioning the legality of his being taken into custody, saying the judge who issued the warrant did not have the jurisdiction to arrest a minister. There were also questions about whether Sudani had the permission to leave the country.

MP 'Abdul-Hadi al-Hassani said: "I called the [ex-] minister a few minutes ago, and he told me his wife got sick last night and that he decided to take her to UAE to see a doctor because there are not good doctors in Iraq". Like Sudani, Hassani is a member of al-Da'wa. According to Hassani, Sudani called Maleki's office before he left in the morning of May 30. Hassani added: "They gave him permission and told him it was OK to travel and said there was no arrest warrant against him".

Maleki made no public statement on the arrest. But a senior government official who said he had spoken to Maleki about the arrest said the PM had told Sudani he could not leave Iraq until the investigation was completed. Maleki ally and MP Sami al-'Askari said: "The prime minister's office ordered airport officials to turn the plane back. The minister is like any other citizen. He can be judged by Iraqi law like any other citizen".

Maleki, who had focused largely on the improving security in his public speeches, recently announced a campaign to stamp out corruption. In 2008 Transparency International, a non-profit organisation which studies corruption, ranked Iraq as one of the world's most corrupt countries, tied with Myanmar and exceeded only by Somalia.

Political opponents have accused Maleki of focusing his recent anti-corruption efforts on those whom he does not believe he needs to build a coalition to maintain his position as PM. Other government officials have been charged with crimes in the past, but in several high-profile cases they managed to flee Iraq.

After Sudani's plane landed at Baghdad International Airport, it was surrounded by dozens of members of the Iraqi security forces and representatives from Maleki's office. The New York Times on May 30 quoted a local witness as saying: "Iraqi security forces prevented anybody from approaching it. They opened its door and got the minister with his wife out of the plane". They led the minister's wife to a VIP lounge and took the former minister with them out of the airport.

If Maleki's words are translated into action this would be the first major anti-corruption campaign in Iraq since 1979, when Saddam arrested - and executed - dozens of officials on charges of embezzlement. The "Sudani three" topped the PM's wanted list.

Ordinary Iraqis are pleased with the arrests, but many say the anti-graft campaign should have begun when Maleki first came to office in May 2006. Maleki on May 27 said: "We will not keep silent about corruption after this day and we will chase all the corrupt and bring them before the judiciary". Last April, Maleki's government issued 387 arrest warrants, 51 for senior officials, all below the rank of minister. Another 997 are waiting to be signed by Maleki.

The government estimates that billions of dollars have been embezzled in bribes since the downfall of Saddam in April 2003. Charges that Sudani was stealing public money and mis-managing the ministry by importing expired foods and employing his relatives, first surfaced in early May. Later in the month as police went to a Trade Ministry building to serve arrest warrants on nine officials, they were fired at by the ministry's guards. During a 15-minute gun battle, all but one of the wanted officials, the ministry's spokesman, escaped from a back door.

The fall-out from the Sudani scandal was worsened when a video surfaced on YouTube which showed the Shi'ite "Islamist" brothers drinking alcohol, cavorting with prostitutes and deriding the PM.

Maleki Aide's Case: Inspired by the new atmosphere, an Iraqi blog, www.kitabat.com (which means writings), ran an article accusing one of Maleki's aides of corruption, calling on the PM to sack even his closest advisers if found guilty. The writer, 'Ali Hussein, was immediately sued by the PM, who demanded compensation ID1 bn (over $800,000), claiming that nepotism charges brought against his aide-de-camp were untrue.

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