Eight Najaf officials arrested over procurement fraud and illegal property registration

NAJAF — Iraq’s Federal Commission of Integrity arrested eight employees in Najaf governorate on Friday in two separate operations involving alleged procurement fraud and the illegal registration of government property.

Six of those arrested are linked to a procurement case at the Najaf Cement Plant involving 96 million dinars ($62,745), while two others face allegations of attempting to register a government-owned plot of land in a private individual’s name rather than offering it through public auction.

In the first operation, the assistant director of Najaf Municipality and a surveyor were arrested over allegations of preparing a false property report on the government-owned land. In the second, six officials and employees from the plant’s procurement committee were detained after the commission’s external auditing division found they had purchased construction materials while inflating prices and splitting purchases for the same material in violation of procurement procedures.

All eight were referred to the Najaf Investigation Court specializing in integrity cases, where a judge ordered their detention pending investigation. The operations were carried out under Articles 331 and 340 of the Iraqi Penal Code.