Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs: 12 corruption files sent to the Integrity Commission, officers on two salaries and false entries in the disabled list (from 2017 to 2020)

On 15 February 2017 the Presidency of the Kurdistan Region said it had referred 12 corruption files concerning the Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs to the Region's Integrity Commission, to be investigated and acted on without regard to the rank or military post of the accused. It said reform decisions had abolished the ministry's committees for buying weapons, supplies and food, handed contracting to the contracts directorate and the legal department under the law, and set up a committee to audit the ministry's debts and spending. A review of the list of disabled Peshmerga had removed 253 of the 867 people interviewed, and money they had received without right would be taken back; action had been taken against 90 officers and employees drawing salaries from both Baghdad and the Region, with 70 more under investigation; and 1,566 officers and members had been cut from the ministry's headquarters. In November 2020 a member of the ministry's senior reform board told Rudaw that reviews under the Region's 2020 reform law were again finding people illegally retired or drawing illegal disability allowances. Neither the files nor the people were named.