The KRG's Anti-Corruption Effort Must Start from Its Oil Sector

Dec 1, 2019 | Yeveran Saeed
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Iraq is one of the most corrupt countries in the world and oil has a lot to do with it. With nearly $100bn in annual revenues coming from oil, which constitutes 90 percent of its budget, the country is a great example of what political economists call "the resource curse". Over the past two decades, very little of that money has been spent on improving the lives of ordinary Iraqis. Instead, through vast networks of patronage, Iraq's oil wealth has been distributed among a select few.