Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohamad Shia al Sudani has ordered the launch of a performance review process on all the country’s provincial governors as part of a new plan to fight corruption and waste that could see the closure of multiple embassies.
Sources in the Coordination Framework, the alliance of Shiite parties backing the Prime Minister, have confirmed that the President is proposing a «performance evaluation of governors» in relation to the «vision of governance» put forward by his cabinet.
«These changes will take place after a systemic evaluation of all governors,» the head of the Coordination Framework, Fadi al Shamari, explained to Shafaq.
This information comes after sources in the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al Awsat reported earlier on Saturday that the prime minister had already ordered the elimination of unnecessary financial allocations to his office, the withdrawal of security protections for former Iraqi presidents, and the closing of embassies in countries where a relevant number of citizens do not reside.
According to media sources, all former presidents and prime ministers after 2003 have been included in the decision, including former presidents Fuad Masum and Barham Sali, as well as former prime ministers Iyad Allaoui, Ibrahim al Jaafari, Nuri al Maliki, Haider al Abadi, Adel Abdul Mahdi and Mostafa al Kazemi.
Prime Minister al Sudani has also ordered to cancel the allowances provided to the «three presidencies», including the president, Abdul Latif Rashid, the parliament speaker Mohammed al Halbusi and his own office.
Finally, the prime minister also reportedly ordered the closure of 20 Iraqi embassies abroad due to the lack of Iraqi expatriates in these countries and the large sums spent on the embassies and their diplomatic staff.