ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s planning ministry said on Wednesday that it has blacklisted more than 700 companies over two years and downgraded their project classifications in one of the country’s largest contractor crackdowns.
“720 companies have been placed on the blacklist. The number on the list is not fixed and is subject to change. Other companies can be added or removed,” ministry spokesperson Abdul Zahra al-Hindawi told Rudaw.
He said companies may file a request to be removed from the blacklist once they meet all conditions and guidelines for self-correction.
Blacklisted companies face penalties, including a downgrade in classification. A firm ranked at level five, for example, would be reduced to level six, barring it from bidding on projects at its former level. The ranking system grades companies by the size and type of projects they are allowed to bid on.
Hindawi did not specify the violations, but reasons could include falsifying documents, breaching contracts, poor quality, or administrative violations.
Iraq ranks as the joint tenth most corrupt country in the world, according to Transparency International’s annual corruption index. Companies in the country are frequently accused of breaching contracts awarded by the state.