(MENAFN- Iraq Business News) By John Lee.
Iraq's Integrity Commission called for streamlining unnecessary procedures when visiting property registration offices. A survey measuring bribery perceptions revealed that 63% of reviewers stated that the desire for quick transaction processing was the primary reason for paying bribes.
The Commission recommended strengthening the monitoring role of the Ministry of Justice's regulatory bodies to oversee employee performance. Survey results in the property registration sector showed that 42% of those who paid bribes reported that the bribe was given directly from the reviewer to the relevant employee. It noted that starting the digitization of property transaction procedures could end the routine frustrations faced by reviewers and significantly help in preventing and reducing corruption.
The Commission's Office for Relations with Non-Governmental Organizations reported, in a document sent to the Prime Minister's Office, the Secretary-General of the Council of Ministers, and the Minister of Justice, that as part of the Commission's duty to prevent and combat corruption through scientific and professional measurement of corruption indicators, it conducted field visits through its central team and supporting teams, as well as teams established in directorates and investigation offices in Baghdad and other provinces. Over three months, the Commission visited 57 property registration offices, surveying the opinions of 7,225 reviewers. Results indicated that the bribery rate across property registration offices in Iraq reached 24%.
Survey analysis results in Baghdad and the provinces showed that after conducting 99 visits to 17 offices in Baghdad, the general bribery rate (perception) reached 27.7%. Although this rate is lower than what was recorded in the 2021 survey, it is still considered high. Karkh Second Property Office recorded the highest bribery rate at 40.4%, followed by Adhamiyah at 31.8%, and Kadhimiyah First at 31.7%. Meanwhile, the property registration offices in Shaab, Kadhimiyah Second, and Rusafa First recorded the lowest bribery rates at 18.4%, 19.2%, and 23%, respectively. The survey revealed a slight decline in bribery rates in three offices in Baghdad compared to previous levels.
In the provinces, 40 offices were visited. Al-Qasim Property Office in Babel Province ranked first with the highest bribery rate at 47.5%, followed by Karbala First at 39.7%, and Abu Al-Khasib in Basra at 38.1%. Meanwhile, Shatra Property Office in Dhi Qar Province recorded the lowest bribery rate at 1%, followed by Al-Khader in Muthanna Province and Souq Al-Shuyoukh in Dhi Qar at 2.7% and 2.9%, respectively.
The report noted that the highest delay in processing transactions was recorded at the General Property Registration Directorate, at 50.8%. Sixty-one percent of reviewers cited routine delays as the reason for processing delays, while 38.6% attributed the delays to inadequate supervision. Meanwhile, 19.4% cited the reason as the need to pay bribes.
The report indicated that the current survey results, along with previous surveys from 2018 and 2021, showed the ongoing prevalence of bribery in this sector's offices at high rates, despite slight improvements. This continues to undermine public trust in the sector's offices and underscores the necessity to eliminate bureaucracy that creates an environment conducive to exploitation and extortion by unscrupulous employees. The team found no significant changes in work procedures compared to those followed in previous years.
The report also identified frequent cases of missing property ownership files or parts of them, which puts citizens facing such issues in a cycle of long review processes to organize a new file or compensate for missing parts. Additionally, the Property Registration Directorate was slow to take swift action to address issues in office work. Moreover, priority was given to brokers and agents who were prevalent in the offices, acting as intermediaries between reviewers and employees.
(Source: Commission of Integrity)
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