Two people living in Iraq may not disagree on the poor level of services provided by the State to its citizens. Primarily because of the widespread financial and administrative corruption in many branches of the State, confirmed in the report of the Corruption Cognitive Index, an indicator of corruption in the public sector, issued by Transparency International Agency. Iraq placed 162th out of 180 countries in the classification, and despite all the enumerated serious and shy attempts to put a clear end or to control some of the sources of corruption, Iraqis still live with the minimum decent living requirements that everyone aspires to.
Part of this corruption, include mismanagement, theft of public money, and enrichment at the expense of others, in addition to the low level of education and the lack of living requirements in many regions, it requires extensive structural and organizational changes in public sector institutions, primarily those that provide services to citizens. These broad changes in the structure of the public sector and its institutions cannot be implemented all at once. Therefore, we agree with the assumption that “public sector reform as a whole is unrealistic, but gradual reform may produce important results,” which requires multiple stages of serious actions at the State, Government, and international community levels.
