Government cars are misused on daily bases in Iraqi Kurdistan

Araz Barwari | Exclusive to iKurd.net

Kurdistan regional government (KRG) pumps millions of dollars in public departments and agencies but doesn’t follow up closely to see how the money is used and spent. For example, Millions of dollars is being spent on fuel and maintenance of vehicles run by government public servant every year in Iraqi Kurdistan.

However, this privilege and facility has been misused by many civil servants despite getting salaries every month.

Iraqi Kurdistan appears to be glued on the wheels of corruption and the misuse of government cars among government officials in Kurdistan of Iraq, is just another example of how corruption still exist in different forms within the KRG government agencies.

The law requires a public servant assigned a government vehicle to only use it for the purpose of enhancing service delivery within government and the vehicles should have official hours with which they are supposed to operate. But many public servants and government officials assigned cars misuse them for personal errands other than the sole purpose that they were assigned to.

However, government cars can be seen running 24 hours all across town, and cities in Kurdistan of Iraqi have seen government vehicles on the road even at midnight and, more often than that, they are not performing any official tasks but are instead are parked by restaurants and shopping centers.

I have also seen government cars filled with women and little children, parked in places where they shouldn’t be and have observed the driver, using the car for personal errands.

The most common way many public servants and all government officials in general, misuse government vehicles is for instance, using the vehicles to take their kids to school, to use the vehicle for personal shopping, family and relative visiting, parties, picnic and holidays trips.

Some even have the audacity to use the vehicle to take their girlfriends and wives out to restaurants, parks and mountains, while some more misuse the government cars to take their spouses to salons and other social joints like weddings.

Military (Peshmerga) vehicles are part of the most misused government vehicles that can be seen everywhere on daily bases. Particularly vehicles with plate number of special military division (Zeravani). Government cars are placed under the hands of many Peshmerga members only to be used for public service related to their government department, but many of these drivers don’t follow this rule, particularly the high ranking security officers.

They have turned the government cars into personal vehicles that are used for daily personal use, by filling the cars with members of their families and relatives and even to ferry goods and people especially in remote areas around cities. The worst part is when these drivers drive by traffic police with having the government cars filled with family members and other civilians, but they are never pulled over and questioned by police for misusing the government car.

Misuse of government cars is against the law because public resources are being squandered and misused. The government of Kurdistan (KRG) should set out clear guidelines on how government vehicles should be used and increase penalties against the abusers of government cars.

KRG should also take strict measures to minimize the misuse of funds and special telephone lines should be set for public to report the misuse of government cars to the anti-corruption agency of Kurdistan.

Government can also install GPS system on government cars in order track down drivers and to make sure that it is not being used for personal purpose.

This will increase transparency in the workings of different departments and that public money spent on fuel and maintenance of these vehicles is not wasted. All civil servants should also be directed to sign an undertaking every month that the government vehicles are being used only for official purposes.

Araz Barwari is a law student at the University of Nawroz in Kurdistan of Iraq.

The opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of iKurd.net or its editors.