« Back to Iraq Photos - May, 2004 to March, 2006
Baghdad Embassy Anti-Corruption Working Group (ACWG)
Taken in March, 2006, just before I returned to the US. This group was supposed to develop and support anti-corruption initiatives, and related organizations like CPI, Board of Supreme Audit and the Iraqi Inspector General departments. However, it was run by the ECON section of the Embassy, and they refused to take any meaningful action, such as use Diplomacy to get the Parliament or the Prime Minister to remove a law that prohibited prosecution of staff in Iraqi Ministries without the permission of the head Ministers. I also asked them to work to get Iraq to adopt international accounting and audit standards, which went nowhere. Thus, Iraq is still using outmoded communist based accounting systems used under Saddam, and which are so weak that no investors will rely on their reports to invest in Iraqi firms.
