Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Affairs Hussein al-Sharistani is not involved in corruption in the Ministry of Electricity and should not be sacked, defended the party he leads, the Mustaqillon "Independents" bloc.
The bloc stated yesterday that its leader was not involved in the contracts signed between fake companies and Electricity Ministry, after a parliamentary report recommended sacking Shahristani from his post.

The Electricity Ministry signed a deal last year worth $ 1.7 billion with two German and Italian companies, which were later discovered to be fake.

Shortly after, the former electricity minister Raad al-Shallal resigned from his post and was arrested by judicial order and he was released on bail.

The Council of Representatives committee, tasked with detecting corruption in Electricity Ministry's contracts, recently submitted a report to the presidency of the Council recommending the sacking of Shahristani and a number of staff believed to be linked with the fake contracts.

Mustaqillon bloc leader Adel al-Maliki said Shaharistani, the Chairman of the Energy Committee, did not sign any contract or give any details about the companies.

The Electricity Ministry gave details about the companies to the Economic Committee, he added.

"The Electricity Ministry provides details about foreign companies and according to the details submitted to the Energy Ministerial Committee the contracts are approved or not."

Despite huge oil and financial revenues, none of Iraq's electricity ministers have been able to improve the electricity sector since 2003.

Iraq needs to at least 14,000 MW to meet the high demand for energy but has only produced 7,000 megawatts so far.

Iraq is often without electricity for 16-20 hours per day.







AKnews