Former Iraqi airports chief demoted over Baghdad airport contracts

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s state airports company has demoted the former head of its airports department and referred his case to the anti-corruption commission over contract violations at Baghdad International Airport, an administrative order seen by 964media shows.

The order, issued by the General Company for Airports and Air Navigation Management, names him as Hussein Ali Hussein Jaber, former director of the Iraqi Airports Management Department. It also refers the case of Ali Salim Hussein, the department’s assistant director for legal affairs, to the Federal Commission of Integrity, Iraq’s main anti-corruption body.

Several other employees named in the findings of the investigation were reprimanded.

According to the documents, the violations involved lease contracts for VIP lounges, electronic gates, fast-track passenger services and offices at Baghdad International Airport, as well as other contracts covering the Baghdad and Basra airports.

The investigation also raised concerns about how contracts were renewed, who had the authority to sign them and whether they were consistent with the Baghdad International Airport development project.

Harith Muthanna Taha, assistant head of the legal section, was reprimanded for failing to record notes or objections on contracts. Other employees were reprimanded for signing contracts without dating them or noting the violations they contained.

Further reprimands went to staff who signed bid acceptance, handover and measurement records for contracts, and to employees who signed contracts for the Baghdad and Basra airports outside their job duties.

Employees accused of trying to hide the original case papers inside the legal section were also penalized. The company imposed the penalties under the State and Public Sector Employees Discipline Law, No. 14 of 1991, as amended.

The order does not give the value of the disputed contracts or say whether they caused any loss of public money. The documents also do not say whether the commission has opened a case or whether any of those named face criminal charges.

The airports department has been moved several times in recent years. On June 20, the Cabinet placed the department back under the state company, reversing a November 2024 decision that had made it a separate department of the Transport Ministry. The ministry said the change would improve coordination and support development plans.

The airport’s VIP facilities have drawn criticism before. In June, Civil Aviation Authority chief Bangin Rekani said on Al-Sharqiya TV that five VIP lounges at the airport broke international standards and opened the door to smuggling, because their users are exempt from security screening. He said those lounges were run by state institutions, including the presidency and the prime minister’s office.

On June 14, Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi canceled a project worth about $764 million to rebuild and run Baghdad International Airport over suspected corruption, the state-run Iraqi News Agency reported, citing a government source. The project, put out to tender as a public-private partnership in 2024, had been awarded under former Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani to a consortium of Luxembourg-based Corporación América Airports and Iraq’s Amwaj International.