Opinion: Active Actions needed

Not a single day passes with out us hearing calls to root out corruption, which has drained the country’s resources and adversely affected the reconstruction that every Iraqi longs for. The strange thing is that some of these calls come from government departments famed for their corrupt practices, such as fraudulent contracts with non-existent commercial firms. Some days ago, the inspector general of the power ministry talked on satellite TV about corrupt elements in his ministry against whom no action had been taken - they wired money to banks abroad at the public’s expense. He noted that some officials were refusing to reactivate the Baathist regime's contracts with foreign companies, preferring to make new contracts instead and benefit from the commission they received. Meanwhile, equipment imported by the old regime worth 750 million US dollars was left lying in the desert with no plans to install it. The things that are happening in the power ministry can also be found in other government agencies permeated by corruption.