Agence France-Presse,
WASHINGTON: The Iraqi government which receives generous U.S. military aid has secretly negotiated an $833 million arms deal with Serbia in an apparent bid to circumvent anti-corruption provisions that accompany such deals with the United States, The New York Times reported on its website April 12.
The newspaper said the deal was struck in September by a delegation of 22 high-ranking Iraqi officials without the knowledge of U.S. commanders in the country.
The deal, largely negotiated by Defense Minister Abdul Qadir and Planning Minister Ali Glahil Baban, called for the purchase of a large number of helicopters, planes, armored personnel carriers, mortar systems, machine guns, body armor, military uniforms and other equipment, according to the report.
Critics say the deal was designed to circumvent anti-corruption safeguards that automatically kick in when arms purchases are made in the United States.
At Qadir's urging, the Iraqi government abolished the national contracts committee, a mandatory review agency for all government purchases of more than $50 million, the paper noted.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki also overrode the nation's Supreme Economic Committee after it expressed concerns that the Serbian deal lacked guarantees of service from the Serbian government, The Times pointed out.
“It struck me as bizarre,” the paper quotes an unnamed Western official as saying. “You can only explain it in two ways: a desire to avoid oversight and a desire to offer opportunities for graft and corruption.”
