Four Babil officials held over alleged repair fraud

Shafaq News- Babil

Iraq’s Federal Commission of Integrity (CoI), the country’s anti-corruption watchdog, said it detained four municipal officials in Babil province on Saturday over 400 million dinars (about $308,000) allegedly spent on fictitious and overpriced vehicle repairs since the beginning of 2026.

The suspects include the head and members of the vehicle repair committee at Al-Qasim Municipality Directorate. According to the CoI, an inquiry into the spending found that large sums had been allocated to fix vehicles that remained out of service, while movement records showed that some had never been taken for maintenance.

Investigators also uncovered requests approved by the inspection committee without consulting drivers about mechanical faults, with some documents bearing signatures that did not belong to the drivers concerned.

The four were referred to the Al-Hillah Investigation Court specializing in integrity cases, which ordered their detention under Article 340 of Iraq’s Penal Code.

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