Iraq speaker calls on PM to sack ‘corrupt’ ministers

BAGHDAD — Iraq's parliament speaker on Monday called for Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi to sack ministers found to be negligent or corrupt as part of a wide-ranging reform drive.

Abadi on Sunday proposed a series of measures aimed at curbing corruption, streamlining the government and improving services after weeks of protests and a call from Iraq's top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani for drastic change.

Parliament Speaker Salim Al Juburi urged MPs to approve Abadi's measures and said even more reforms were required. The legislature is to discuss the reforms on Tuesday.

"We asked the prime minister to dismiss a number of ministers who are clearly guilty of dereliction, negligence and corruption," Juburi said in televised remarks.

Juburi did not name specific ministers in his public statement.

But a parliamentary official said those responsible for electricity and water resources were both proposed for the chopping block in a meeting Monday between the speaker and political leaders.

Juburi also called for MPs who are absent for more than a third of the time to be removed.

Absent MPs are a perennial problem for the Iraqi legislature, which even failed to reach a quorum for an emergency session called in response to a sweeping offensive by the Daesh terror group in June 2014.

Amid a major heatwave that has seen temperatures top 50oC, protesters have railed against the poor quality of services, especially power outages that leave just a few hours of government-supplied electricity per day.

Thousands of people have turned out in Baghdad and various cities in the Shiite south to vent their anger at the authorities.

People have protested over services and corruption before, but the demonstrations failed to bring about significant change.

Demonstrators’ demands were given a boost on Friday when Sistani, who is revered by millions, called for Abadi to take “drastic measures” against corruption, saying that the “minor steps” he had announced were not enough.

Abadi rolled out the reform programme two days later.

One of the most drastic of Abadi’s proposals, which were approved by the Cabinet on Sunday, was the call for the posts of vice president and deputy prime minister to be eliminated “immediately”.

The plan also calls for the elimination of “political and sectarian quotas” for senior officials, for increased oversight to prevent corruption and for services to be improved, among other measures.