BAGHDAD, April 19 (AKnews) - The Iraqi government's finance committee has formed a committee to investigate a governmental fraud attempt of 7tr IQD ($6bn) using fake documents.
The fraud was discovered when the money was transferred.
Committee member Najiba Najib said many MPs mentioned that the money was supposed to be taken from the state treasury using fake documents belonging to the Secretariat of the Council of Ministers.
"The theft, according to preliminary information, was supposed to be done in two phases. The first included the amount mentioned above, and the second included a larger amount, but the robbery was thwarted before transferring the amount.
Najib added: "The Ministry of Finance and the banks, in cooperation with the investigative committee, demand to reveal those behind the theft and how to pass the forged documents. The committee seeks to reveal the truth and addressing the imbalance in the Iraqi banks to prevent the recurrence of [this] in the future."
The incident is the second of its kind in Iraq after the attempt to steal 1.9tr IQD ($1.7bn) in contracts signed by the Electricity Ministry with two fake companies.
By Haider Ibrahim