Riikka Eela, head of the Middle East unit of the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, considers the suspicions serious. However, he is satisfied that the UN has quickly set out to find out the matter.
UN employees in Iraq are suspected of taking bribes. Tells about it British newspaper The Guardian based on his own investigation.
The ambiguities concern the UN Development Fund’s UNDP Iraq Stabilization Fund, in which Finland also participates. A total of approximately 1.4 billion euros has been paid into the stabilization fund since 2015. Finland’s share of this is 12.5 million euros.
The Iraq Stabilization Fund was established to support the reconstruction and stabilization of areas liberated from the terrorist organization ISIS. The goal was to enable the local population to return to their homes.
“You don’t get anything in this country unless you pay”
According to The Guardian, UNDP staff in Iraq have demanded bribes from contractors in exchange for help in the tender process. The size of the bribes has been up to 15 percent of the value of the contract.
Donated workers have helped contractors to navigate the UN’s complex bidding system in order to win the contract they are aiming for.
– No one can get a contract without paying. In this country, you don’t get anything unless you pay, neither from the government nor from UNDP, the contractor, who remains anonymous, tells The Guardian.
The Guardian has interviewed about 30 current and former UNDP Iraq employees, Iraqi contractors, both Western and Iraqi officials. According to them, the UN is part of the local bribery culture.
In its article, the newspaper does not present an estimate of how much of the grants paid to the fund could have been spent on bribes. There are also no estimates in the case about how much of the stabilization fund’s projects had ambiguities.
The UN Development Fund says it has implemented a total of 3,600 projects from the Iraq Stabilization Fund. With the support of the fund, schools, hospitals, water and electricity networks, residential buildings and roads have been rebuilt.
The video below tells about the repair of Mosul’s water treatment plant in 2017. The repairs were paid for from the Iraqi Stabilization Fund.
Finland was about to stop funding
Finland has participated in the Iraq Stabilization Fund since 2016. The last payment to the fund was made in 2021. Finland was about to stop financing the Iraq Stabilization Fund even before the bribery suspicions became known.
Head of the Middle East Unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Riikka Eelan according to that, there have been no new payments, and there are no plans. After The Guardian’s revelation, UNDP has contacted the funding community, including Finland.
– All accusations of abuse are terribly regrettable, Eela tells by phone.
However, he is satisfied with the fact that UNDP has been actively in contact with the financiers and said that they will clear up the doubts. The investigation is only at the beginning, so there is no information about the possibility of Finnish funding ending up in the wrong hands.
Eela states that Finland has paid a lump sum into the fund, and has not earmarked the support it has given through the Iraq Stabilization Fund to any specific project.
– There are a huge number of projects in the fund, and they are quite small, Eela points out.
– The arguments in The Guardian’s story have to be clarified one at a time, and they were structural issues. They are unlikely to survive very quickly.
Eela points out that the international community works in Iraq precisely because the state is fragile. State functions collapsed in a large part of the country during the 2014-2017 Islamic terrorist organization ISIS’s invasion and reign.
Eela emphasizes that it is safer for Finland to act in such an environment through large international organizations such as the UN. The UN has the ability to manage and assess risks.
– They have a good routine of examining them. They can do it.
Between 2015 and 2023, the Iraq Stabilization Fund has been the target of a total of 130 suspicions of corruption or other ambiguities. In about 50 cases, the notifications have been found to be appropriate.
UNDP: Allegations are being investigated
The UN development program UNDP is in his public statement said it was taking the allegations seriously and investigating them urgently.
According to UNDP, all allegations of bribery, corruption or fraud are assessed and, if necessary, investigated by UNDP’s Independent Audit and Investigation Agency. It assures zero tolerance for corruption.
UNDP says that the operation of the Iraq Stabilization Fund has been monitored more closely than usual because it is complex and comprehensive.
UNDP has reported that it has improved the lives of nearly nine million Iraqis through the Iraq Stabilization Fund.