Institutionalised corruption in Iraq

Corruption may have cost Iraq hundreds of billions of dollars over the past decade. Anecdotal evidence of the problem is easy to find, but changing the structure of government is only the first step in tackling a problem which is as much cultural as criminal. According to information passed on to GSN over the past several years by business people involved in Iraq, it has been standard practice for local middlemen to obtain contracts from ministries and subcontract the work to others.