Iraq speaker calls on PM to sack 'corrupt' ministers

Baghdad

Iraq's parliament speaker called yesterday for Prime Minister Haider al Abadi to sack ministers found to be negligent or corrupt as part of a wide-ranging reform drive.

Abadi on Sunday proposed a series of measures aimed at curbing corruption, streamlining the government and improving services after weeks of protests and a call from Iraq's top Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani for drastic change.

Parliament speaker Salim al Juburi called on MPs to approve Abadi's measures and said even more reforms were required. The house is to discuss the reforms today.

"We asked the prime minister to dismiss a number of ministers who are clearly guilty of dereliction, negligence and corruption," Juburi said in televised remarks.

Juburi did not name specific ministers in his public statement. But a parliamentary official said those responsible for electricity and water resources were both proposed for the chopping block in a meeting yesterday between the speaker and political leaders.

Juburi also called for MPs who are absent more than a third of the time to be removed. Absent MPs are a perennial problem for the Iraqi legislature, which even failed to reach a quorum for an emergency session called in response to a sweeping offensive by jihadists in June 2014.