MP Iyad Al-Jubouri, from the Sunni “Al-Azm” Alliance, revealed a “corruption deal” related to granting an investment license for a vast area of land surrounding Baghdad International Airport, worth up to 13 trillion dinars (about 10 billion dollars), indicating the involvement of “corrupt parties” in passing it.
Al-Jubouri, who belongs to an alliance led by Muthanna al-Samarrai, said in a statement that “investment license number 515 was granted to an Egyptian investor named Talaat on an area of 5,800 dunams (a dunam is equivalent to 2,500 square meters in Iraq) in agreement with corrupt parties, and in a manner that violates government directives.”
The Iraqi MP held the head of the National Investment Commission responsible for granting this license, reminding everyone that the head of the commission had been questioned in the House of Representatives.
The Iraqi MP held the head of the National Investment Commission responsible for granting this license, recalling that “the head of the commission had been questioned in the House of Representatives, and it was agreed with him at that time not to grant any investment licenses in the vicinity of Baghdad International Airport.”
He added that “the Investment Authority took advantage of the approaching Eid holiday to proceed with signing the license, with the aim of preventing any regulatory action or official procedures that might stop the project or open the door to accountability regarding it.”
The MP appealed to the Prime Minister, Ali al-Zidi, to “intervene to stop these procedures and open an official investigation through the Parliamentary Investment Committee to uncover the circumstances of the case and the parties involved in it.”
This coincides with the member of the Parliamentary Integrity Committee, MP Alaa Hussein Al-Tamimi, directing a parliamentary question to the Minister of Culture, Tourism and Antiquities, in which he revealed suspicions of major “financial and administrative corruption” that accompanied the contract to rehabilitate the Al-Mansour Cinema and Theater in the Grand Celebrations Square in Baghdad, which was concluded with the Bahraini company “Beko”.
He explained in a press statement that “the project documents showed a significant inflation in prices compared to the real values in the local market,” indicating that “the cost of the cooling system amounted to about 1.17 billion dinars, even though its actual value does not exceed 500 million dinars.”
He added that “the project also included allocating more than 136 million dinars to equip 170 electric lamps, while their real market value does not exceed five million dinars only.”
He pointed out that “the project’s bills of quantities were written randomly and without specifying the country of origin or the required technical specifications,” noting that “they were prepared by non-specialized people and without being presented to the engineering department in the ministry.”
Al-Tamimi called for “the formation of a specialized audit committee comprising the legal department and the projects department, with the obligation of the ministry to provide an official and detailed response within a period not exceeding 15 days.”
According to the documents, “the Bahraini company (Beko) implementing the project specializes in organizing events and celebrations, and does not have experience in construction or rehabilitation work, in addition to accusations of altering the wording of the Prime Minister’s approval from equipping the theater to rehabilitating the theater in order to exploit the remaining funds from the Baghdad Summit project.”
According to the statement, the project also witnessed delays in completion and sluggishness in implementation, in addition to the dismissal of the head of the committee supervising the project after he refused to sign off on completion percentages that were described as unrealistic.
The documents accused the company's representative, an Iraqi national, of attempting to "exploit the project for investment purposes and acquire the theater in the future."
Al-Tamimi called for “the formation of a specialized audit committee that includes the legal department and the projects department, with the obligation of the ministry to provide an official and detailed response within a period not exceeding 15 days.”
In his first speech upon officially assuming his duties, delivered on May 16, 2026, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Faleh al-Zaidi affirmed that his government would work “with all its might to protect public funds and combat administrative and financial corruption in all its forms.”
