‘The greatest threat is retreat’: Khadamat Alliance urges sustained corruption drive

BAGHDAD — The spokesman for Iraq’s Khadamat Alliance has called on Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi to sustain the government’s anti-corruption campaign, arguing that its success depends on turning recent actions into permanent institutional policy.

Speaking to 964media, Hossam al-Rubaie said recent developments had restored “some public confidence in the possibility of moving from the stage of rhetoric to the stage of action.”

“If the measures taken by the government represent an important beginning,” he wrote, “their true value is not measured by the number of files opened or the people held accountable, but by their ability to become a permanent institutional approach that is not subject to political circumstances or shifting priorities.”

Al-Rubaie said his appeal to Zaidi was to “sustain and strengthen these measures,” arguing that “fighting corruption is not a temporary campaign, but a state project aimed at protecting public funds, consolidating the rule of law and rebuilding trust between citizens and state institutions.”

He said the greatest threat to reform was “not corruption itself, but retreating from confronting it once public and media momentum fades.”

Rubaie said any national anti-corruption strategy requires a “four-part framework”: an independent judiciary that applies the law without discrimination, a government with the political will to protect oversight institutions, a parliament that exercises its constitutional oversight role, and a supportive public that grants reform social legitimacy and rejects corruption under any pretext.

Rubaie said Iraq now has “a real opportunity to transform anti-corruption measures into a sustainable public policy,” provided authorities capitalize on the current momentum, close the doors to impunity, strengthen coordination between constitutional authorities and involve society, the media and national elites in protecting the effort.

He closed with an Arabic proverb, “If favorable winds blow, seize them,” adding that “the winds of reform do not blow often” and warning that hesitation “only gives corruption another opportunity to reorganize itself and return in more complex forms.”

The remarks come after Iraqi authorities seized another 25 billion dinars (about $18.9 million at the official rate), $1 million and about 5 kilograms of gold in the corruption case against former Deputy Oil Minister Adnan al-Jumaili, the Supreme Judicial Council said Monday, bringing the total recovered in the investigation to 127 billion dinars (about $96 million at the official rate) and $24 million.

The case has expanded quickly since Jumaili’s detention over alleged financial irregularities in the oil sector. Security sources familiar with the investigation have said interviews with Jumaili produced more than 100 names, though not all face arrest warrants or proceedings. The inquiry also formed the basis for “Dawn Strike,” the operation inside Baghdad’s Green Zone in which Counter Terrorism Service units and army forces carried out coordinated raids on current and former officials. Zaidi has described the campaign as the first phase of a broader effort.