BAGHDAD (AP) – Iraq’s prime minister on Saturday ordered an investigation into corruption allegations against senior oil officials following an expose into bribe-taking published in international media outlets.
In a statement, Haider al-Abadi ordered “immediate” action by both the anti-corruption commission and the judiciary following reports published by the Huffington Post and Australia’s Fairfax media into large-scale bribe taking by Monaco-based Unaoil company.
The report names four senior Iraqi officials as having received bribes from Unaoil between 2004 and 2012. They include former oil minister Abdul-Karim Elaibi and the outgoing higher education minister, Hussain al-Shahristani, who previously served as oil minister and deputy prime minister in charge of energy.
The publications said they drew on information gleaned from hundreds of thousands of internal emails dated between 2002 and 2012 for their six-month investigation.
The report said that Unaoil paid at least $25 million in bribes via middlemen to secure the support of powerful Iraqi officials, while complaining internally that they were “greedy.” The report also accused the company of bribing senior employees working for international oil companies in Iraq.