Iraq Ghost Soldiers Found - Iraq's new government has found something that is really upsetting through an investigation initiated by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.
According to NBC News, through the investigation Iraq's ghost soldiers were found. They are so-called as such because the do not show up for work but continues to receive army salaries.
As per the statement made by al-Abadi's spokesman Rafid Jaburi, Iraq's ghost soldiers found were at 50,000.
"Only by checking paperwork, I managed during this month to eliminate 50,000 ghost soldiers in four Iraqi army divisions," al-Abadi said on Sunday, prompting lawmakers to erupt in shouts at the announcement.
"I feel sad that all that time we were paying salaries, and we don't have money, while other soldiers are fighting and getting killed, and some soldiers are getting paid without appearing," he added.
These ghost soldiers were said to have paid their officers a portion of their salaries so that they could not show up for their army responsibilities.
"Those 50,000 soldiers were revealed after an intense search through military documents and there will be a field search in order to put an end to this phenomenon and any other form of corruption," Jaburi said.
Because of these soldiers no-show, local officials insisted that the ISIS attack in June could have been contained.
That time, instead of having 25,000 soldiers enlisted to fight against the militants, only 10,000 showed up, giving the ISIS militants the upper hand in the situation.
The names of Iraq's ghost soldiers have already been identified but were not immediately available to the media.
Abadi, who took office in September, has since pledged to end the corruption that thrived during Nuri al-Maliki's eight year rule.
As part of his move to root out corruption, he had dismissed 24 senior Interior Ministry officials and enlisted new officers who are "more effective in confronting terrorism."
Last week, Finance Minister Hoshiyar Zebari expressed that there is indeed a need for "deep-rooted reform of the security forces" in order for them to efficiently fight corruption and mismanagement, reports World Bulletin.
"The military has to be cleaned of all these numbers, figures of ghost soldiers and other mismanagement," Zebari said.
An investigation on the possibility that there could be more ghost soldiers is being carried out as al-Abadi vowed to punish those responsible, according to CNN.
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