Diyala official detained over early release of road project guarantee

DIYALA — Iraq’s Federal Commission of Integrity said it had detained an accounts official at the Diyala Governorate Office over allegations that she caused financial harm to the state by releasing a bank guarantee for a road project before its final acceptance.

The commission said the official, head of a division at the governorate office, handed the guarantee for a road maintenance and paving project in Baqubah to the contracting company’s representative even though the work was not officially complete and violations remained. The official said she released the guarantee because she believed it was no longer needed and mistakenly assumed the project had received final acceptance, according to the commission.

The commission said its team inspected the site and found cracks, subsidence and other damage on one of the paved roads just months after completion. The project, awarded to a local company, was valued at about 1.26 billion dinars (about $956,000 at the official rate). It said final acceptance had been withheld because defects were unresolved, and that a committee assessing the damage was later dissolved because no financial guarantees remained for the company. The suspect was presented before the Integrity Investigation Court in Baqubah.