The food basket contract: a single offer from Al-Aws company, questions in Parliament and a Board of Supreme Audit finding of monopoly (from 2021 to 2026)

In July 2021 MP Riyadh al-Tamimi of Parliament's economy and investment committee wrote to the Prime Minister and the Integrity Commission about the food basket. He said the only offer, dated 7 January 2021, came from Al-Aws company, whose authorised manager is Falah Fares Hassan, and that it did not go through the government contracting rules. He said the Prime Minister's Office had backed the offer, that the partnership contract gave the State Company for Foodstuff Trading 1 percent and the supplier 99 percent, exempted the supplier from taxes and ran for five years, and that it wasted about USD 2 billion. In February 2024 MP Hadi al-Salami filed a request with more than 50 signatures to question the Minister of Trade, Atheer Dawood al-Ghurairy, over suspected corruption, waste and the food basket; in March 2024, according to the ministry, a court sentenced al-Salami for making and using a forged document attributed to the Board of Supreme Audit. The Board's 2025 report, discussed in Parliament on 21 July 2026, found that the supply of ration items was monopolised by one private company against the competition law and that company staff received bonuses from the contract's performance bonds.