Revelation of PSCs is no answer to endemic corruption

Kurd oil

By Harem Karem:

Despite scores of articles written on the question of the mysterious hydrocarbon concessions and into whose pockets its revenue goes, the KRG continues with its preposterous nonsense. It seeks to avoid culpability while its disingenuous natural resources minister (NRM) releases long-overdue details of production sharing contracts (PSCs) signed in recent years. This is an attempt to persuade the general public that the extractive industries transparency initiative is not murky and to dispel the idea that illicit PSCs are being held by the impotent central government.

However, one cannot see a gleam of any measures by the KRG or its incompetent NRM to explain the following:

  • The oligarchs’ dealings with oil since 1992.
  • The inadequate compensation paid to poor villagers living near the refineries for the enormous damage they have suffered.
  • The missing seven billion dollars received from oil concessions and the interest on this amount, since it has not been added to the KRG budget. (Note: On 19/10/2009 when the NRM was summoned to parliament, he confirmed that the government had received five billion dollars).
  •  The KRG’s failure to exercise professional competency: who is in possession of the oil revenues? According to the KRG oil law of 2007, all hydrocarbon revenues must be kept in a separate account: why does this account still not exist? If it does exist, why has it not been revealed to the parliamentary oil committee?
  • The ministry of natural resources revenue in 2011 is 370 million dinars – but its expenses are more than 23 billion dinars?
  • Thousands of tons of crude have been smuggled every day since the coalition liberation – aside from the 250 million dollars recently declared, where is the rest of this revenue?
  • What happened to the missing four billion dollars that disappeared between the fifth and the sixth cabinets?

In order to instil confidence and avoid being lambasted, it is imperative for the KRG to divulge the above points in its transparency initiative, although this is just a small fraction of the overall burgeoning corruption.

Many Kurds had their hopes held high when the opposition party Gorran emerged. They hoped that Gorran would finally penetrate the dominant parties and their counter-productive coalition by holding them accountable and recovering the nation’s prerogative over national resources that have been turned over to private interests, and put an end to endemic corruption once and for all.

Soon after the general election opposition MPs found themselves challenging PUK-KDP MPs who are clearly not in Parliament to represent their constituents but rather to implement party agendas that benefit their corrupt leaders. These friends of the oligarchy have never allowed laws to be passed that threaten their superiors’ interests – for example, to stop oil smuggling. This situation has led to the resignations of at least six prominent MPs whose consciences no longer allow them to belong to a parliament where fellow MPs knowingly neglect the general public just to please their superiors.

 

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