Disclosure of failure of Municipality of Baghdad to sign investment contract for Al-Mishin compound’s land
Office of Prevention recommends change of using agricultural lands should not be expanded to commercial use unless strictly necessary
Finding part of compound land owned by Ministry of Electricity
The Commission of Integrity (CoI) disclosed the results of the work of its investigative team to verify the information contained in a report broadcasted by one of the satellite channels and monitored by the CoI’s Media Center which transmitted to CoI Commissioner about violations of a green land illegal to build on near Al-Mishin Bridge with the approval of the Investment Commission and Baghdad Mayoralty.
In a report prepared by the investigative team, which conducted several visits to the Baghdad Investment Commission, Baghdad Mayoralty, Karrada Municipality Office and meeting with its officials, CoI’s Office of Prevention revealed the approval of the High Committee on Designs at Baghdad Mayoralty to change the use of the land from open green land to service commercial use, provided that the plans are to be examined and approved by the Office of Designs at the Mayoralty, explaining that the decision to approve the change the use of the land falls under the jurisdiction of the Mayoralty of Baghdad as stipulated in the Basic Design Law of the City of Baghdad No. 56 of 1971.
The report pointed out that the Investment Commission of Baghdad granted an investment license to two real estate and tourism investment companies for the purpose of establishing a tourism recreational project after obtaining the approval of the Mayoralty of Baghdad to invest the land as an integrated recreational project, pointing to the approval of the Commission on the withdrawal request submitted by one of the two companies, while the Commission amended the investor item to the other company with the same obligations to build a commercial compound, without any letter certifying the approval of the Mayoralty of Baghdad to convert the project from tourist to commercial.
The report showed that the Office of Designs at Baghdad Mayoralty had indicated that the land does not fall within the lands, illegal to build on, allocated to the highway, and after reviewing the map of the real estate issued by the Directorate of Land Registration in Rusafa 2, the team found that the land`s title deed, which area was more than 36 acres, belonged to the Mayoralty of Baghdad and Public Directorate for transferring Electric Power, adding that the due approvals were obtained from the Mayoralty of Baghdad to hand over the land to investors initially; to follow the procedures of evicting the squatters as well as soil tests and land settlement.
The report revealed that the Mayoralty of Baghdad did not signed the investment contract; because the Office of Designs had not approved the architectural plans, and that the body responsible for supervising and following-up the implementation of investment projects in the Mayoralty of Baghdad is the investment department.
The team recommended that a copy of the report be deposited in the Office of the Mayor of Baghdad and the Inspector-General of the Mayoralty of Baghdad for the purpose of directing the High Committee of Basic Design of the City of Baghdad to stop expanding the use of agricultural lands to commercial uses except for utmost necessity, so as to preserve such lands.
