Third electricity corruption case this month as financial director jailed

BAGHDAD — The director of financial affairs at the state-owned Central Electricity Distribution Company has been sentenced to three years in prison for illicit gains, the third case against electricity sector officials this month.

The Central Anti-Corruption Criminal Court ordered him to repay 1.17 billion dinars, about $890,000 at the official rate, and $203,000, and imposed a fine equal to both sums, the Federal Commission of Integrity said. He will not be released after serving the three years until the repayments and fines are settled.

The court also confiscated shares registered in his wife’s name in a property and an apartment in Baghdad’s Dawoodi and Karrada Maryam areas, valued at 1.1 billion dinars or about $835,000, along with two vehicles worth $223,000, and placed a precautionary seizure on his movable and immovable assets. His total exposure comes to roughly $3.2 million.

The same court sentenced the director general of the state-owned General Company for Electric Power Production in the Middle Euphrates and his office director to six years each for bribery two days earlier. Investigators searching properties belonging to detained Deputy Electricity Minister Khalid Ghazai Atiyah found $5.8 million in cash, 1.175 billion dinars and gold earlier this month.

The cases fall within a campaign that widened after the arrest of former Deputy Oil Minister Adnan al-Jumaili in May, which has produced about 82 billion dinars and $152 million in cash along with 484 kilograms of gold. The Electricity Ministry aimed in April to generate 30,000 MW at peak against projected demand of 55,000 to 60,000 MW; generation has since fallen to about 21,000 MW, and protests over shortages have spread across the country.