A Wasted Resource IWPR Special Report on Oil Exploitation in Iraq

Institute for War & Peace Reporting

...Officials in Basra, the southern city near Iraq’s richest oil fields, admitted to IWPR reporters in the city that oil worth five million US dollars went missing just last April. They call it waste. But locals call it smuggling and say Shia militias and political parties are complicit. "Under Saddam, the oil ministry generally had a good reputation. It was seen as staffed by competent technocrats who got on with the job," wrote IWPR editor Christoph Reuter in a comment piece for the special report. "That is not the case any longer. As with other ministries, an experienced staff has often been replaced by less qualified, political appointees."...

continua / continued