Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
USA Today
February 29, 2008
Pg. 7
Other officers collect money, inquiry finds
By Jim Michaels, USA Today
BAGHDAD-- Iraq's government has spent millions of dollars on "phantom" police officers who left the force or died, but whose names remained on department payrolls while others illegally pocketed their salaries.
An investigation by the Iraqi Interior Ministry in six provinces found that 15%-20% of the names on police payrolls there no longer corresponded to active-duty officers. More than 11,000 names have since been purged nationwide as part of a broad effort to cut graft.
The excess money for salaries sent by the federal government in Baghdad often ended up in the hands of other police officers, said Army Brig. Gen. David Phillips, the top U.S. adviser for police training.
"A lot of those police officers disappeared-- either ran away, didn't come to work, killed, any number of things," Phillips said. "There was still pay going out there … unless someone stopped it."
In recent months, the Interior Ministry has sent officials to provincial police stations, where they refused to pay anyone who couldn't walk in to collect their salary in cash.
In Anbar, a Sunni province west of the capital, about a quarter of the names on the police payroll were removed, according to Phillips.
Many commanders probably knew the corruption was taking place because they had to approve payroll lists, Phillips said.
In many cases, commanders found by the Interior Ministry to have engaged in acts of corruption were demoted or reassigned to other units.
Some police forces have been reluctant to take tougher punitive measures such as firing personnel because they don't want to put someone "bitter" on the street "who did something he thought was not that wrong," Phillips said.
Many of the provinces under investigation are Sunni areas where insurgencies were strong and police have only recently begun turning the tide.
The accountability problem reflects the haste of creating much of the security force after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, said Maj. Gen. Hussein al-Awadi, commander of Iraq's national police.
Phillips said there was little consistency early on in the way the police were developed and few national institutions existed to track and monitor pay.
The no-show problem was particularly acute in provinces with large Sunni populations. Many police stations collapsed when the insurgency grew in strength in 2004. Sunnis also turned their back on the Shiite-dominated government or were intimidated by al-Qaeda militants who moved freely in many Sunni regions.
A small number of the "ghost" employees were widows who continued to receive their husband's salary because Iraq's system was initially slow in providing death benefits. The bulk of the salaries, however, went to some form of corruption, Phillips said.
The phantom worker problem has been virtually eliminated, mostly under the Iraqis' initiative, Phillips said. New systems to track pay will prevent the trouble from recurring, he said.
The corruption cost Iraq's government millions of dollars, though an exact figure is difficult to determine, since systems in place at the time were not capable of effectively tracking personnel.
New police officers are paid about $6,515 a year.
Al-Awadi said the national police agency returned about $6.7 million to Iraq's treasury after cleaning up its payroll last year. The national police force, which numbers about 32,500, is separate and a much smaller force than local police.
"We fixed the problem 100%," al-Awadi said.
February 29, 2008
Pg. 7
Other officers collect money, inquiry finds
By Jim Michaels, USA Today
BAGHDAD-- Iraq's government has spent millions of dollars on "phantom" police officers who left the force or died, but whose names remained on department payrolls while others illegally pocketed their salaries.
An investigation by the Iraqi Interior Ministry in six provinces found that 15%-20% of the names on police payrolls there no longer corresponded to active-duty officers. More than 11,000 names have since been purged nationwide as part of a broad effort to cut graft.
The excess money for salaries sent by the federal government in Baghdad often ended up in the hands of other police officers, said Army Brig. Gen. David Phillips, the top U.S. adviser for police training.
"A lot of those police officers disappeared-- either ran away, didn't come to work, killed, any number of things," Phillips said. "There was still pay going out there … unless someone stopped it."
In recent months, the Interior Ministry has sent officials to provincial police stations, where they refused to pay anyone who couldn't walk in to collect their salary in cash.
In Anbar, a Sunni province west of the capital, about a quarter of the names on the police payroll were removed, according to Phillips.
Many commanders probably knew the corruption was taking place because they had to approve payroll lists, Phillips said.
In many cases, commanders found by the Interior Ministry to have engaged in acts of corruption were demoted or reassigned to other units.
Some police forces have been reluctant to take tougher punitive measures such as firing personnel because they don't want to put someone "bitter" on the street "who did something he thought was not that wrong," Phillips said.
Many of the provinces under investigation are Sunni areas where insurgencies were strong and police have only recently begun turning the tide.
The accountability problem reflects the haste of creating much of the security force after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, said Maj. Gen. Hussein al-Awadi, commander of Iraq's national police.
Phillips said there was little consistency early on in the way the police were developed and few national institutions existed to track and monitor pay.
The no-show problem was particularly acute in provinces with large Sunni populations. Many police stations collapsed when the insurgency grew in strength in 2004. Sunnis also turned their back on the Shiite-dominated government or were intimidated by al-Qaeda militants who moved freely in many Sunni regions.
A small number of the "ghost" employees were widows who continued to receive their husband's salary because Iraq's system was initially slow in providing death benefits. The bulk of the salaries, however, went to some form of corruption, Phillips said.
The phantom worker problem has been virtually eliminated, mostly under the Iraqis' initiative, Phillips said. New systems to track pay will prevent the trouble from recurring, he said.
The corruption cost Iraq's government millions of dollars, though an exact figure is difficult to determine, since systems in place at the time were not capable of effectively tracking personnel.
New police officers are paid about $6,515 a year.
Al-Awadi said the national police agency returned about $6.7 million to Iraq's treasury after cleaning up its payroll last year. The national police force, which numbers about 32,500, is separate and a much smaller force than local police.
"We fixed the problem 100%," al-Awadi said.