The first deputy chairman of the Iraqi Council of Representatives Qusay al-Suhail objected to reading a report on the failure of electricity production in the country which called for the sacking of Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Shahristani, said a member of the committee charged with writing the report.
Suhail's refusal was because the representatives of the State of Law Coalition in the committee did not sign the report, said Kurdish Blocs Coalition committee member Farhad al-Atrushi.

"We were surprised about the rejection of the first deputy chairman of the Council of Representatives Qusay al-Suhail to read the report. The committee is made up of eight members, five of them signed the report's recommendations and three abstained.

"The investigative committee set up by the Council of Representatives seven months ago ended its work and recommended the sacking of Shahristani and others from their posts due to their involvement in corruption files in the Electricity Ministry contracts," said Atrushi.

He added that the report was submitted to the presidency of the Council of Representatives to be included within the council's agenda.

The committee in the Council of Representatives was tasked with detecting the failure of electricity production in Iraq. The committee recommended in its final report the dismissal of Shahristani and five other employees.

The committee was supposed to present its report about corruption in electricity contracts from 2006 to 2011 after the Council of Representatives resumed its work following recess. The committee however confirmed that political pressure prevented it from presenting the report.

Iraq needs to at least 14,000 megawatts to meet the high demand for energy while it currently has fewer than 7,000 megawatts.

None of the electricity ministers since 2003 have been able to improve the electricity sector in the country despite huge oil and financial revenues.




AKnews