964 investigates missing funds from passport fees

ERBIL, August 2 – Citizens paying for passport application fees in the Kurdistan region are being charged 91,000 Iraqi dinars, but receipts indicate payment of just 25,000 dinars, raising concern about the remaining amount.

Individuals who obtained electronic passports in Erbil and Sulaymaniyah said they used Visas and Mastercards to make the payments and noticed the discrepancy on the receipts.

964 investigated a number of receipts and found the same difference on documents from different offices across the country.

Colonel Merywan Abdul Salam, Director of Passports in Sulaymaniyah, told 964: “All of the money goes directly to the account of the Iraqi Ministry of Interior, but Baghdad agreed with the company issuing the passports, that 66,000 out of the 91,000 Iraqi dinars would go to the company directly, and only 25,000 to the Iraqi government, and so the government gives a receipt for 25,000 dinars.”