Hospital official in Maysan arrested on embezzlement charges

MAYSAN — Iraq’s Federal Commission of Integrity announced Tuesday the arrest of an official at a government hospital in Maysan Governorate on charges of embezzling public funds.

In a statement, the commission said investigative teams from its Maysan office carried out an operation at a hospital affiliated with the provincial health directorate after conducting “search, monitoring and auditing procedures.”

The commission said the team “was able to arrest the official in charge of one of the hospital’s units for embezzling sums of money from receipt book stubs belonging to hospitalized patients.”

According to the statement, the accused used “a receipt book dating back to 2024 and a procurement order book from 2021,” and diverted the resulting funds “for personal benefit, in violation of the law.”

The commission added that the suspect “confessed to carrying out this operation for a period ranging between five and six months.”

It said the arrest report was presented, along with the accused, to the judge of the competent investigative court handling integrity cases in Maysan, who ordered the suspect’s detention.