26 Chapter 25: The Governor

February 1984

Fazal Hamdani was sweating buckets as he sat at his desk in his plush office in downtown Baghdad. He had been the Governor of Iraq's Central Bank for just over a year during which time he had faced many nerve wracking situations as he tried to the do the impossible - combat wayward inflation while also reforming the most important monetary policy institution of the country.

But today, today he would learn the outcome of the Ombudsman General's investigation into a whistleblower's accusation of financial mismanagement at the Central Bank. The Ombudsman General - Ahmed Habeeb, commonly known as al-Mukhbarati. He had been Saddam's right hand man until 1981 as one of the leaders of the dreaded secret police. But in 1981 he was promoted to the now mythical role of Ombudsman General of Iraq, famous worldwide for being the highest paid civil servant of any country.

In his role as OG, Ahmed Habeeb sole task was to root out corruption in any public office in any part of the country. His compensation was in line with the enormity of his role and the need for complete transparency. Habeeb was perfect at it. He went about his job with surgical precision. One thing was clear about the new Iraq...it did not tolerate either corruption or incompetence in its government employees.

Fazal Hamdani was an Iraqi Kurd. His family had fled Iraq when he was just a young man and settled in America where he studied Economics and eventually became a Professor at University of Illinois. His specialization had been monetary policy and he had worked with the Fed and the Bank of England. But like all other Iraqi expatriates he had not expected the Iraqi Miracle that began in 1979. Especially since nothing had changed regime wise to spur it on. It was as if one fine day, Saddam woke up and just decided to become a human.

But despite his wife's hatred of Saddam and Iraq because of her past experiences he couldn't stop watching what was happening. He had been furious when the Dictator signed over 10 years worth of oil to America at dirt cheap rates, sure that Saddam would funnel that money into swiss bank accounts. But remarkably the Dictator used that money to expand infrastructure through the Spine of Iraq project that Siemens completed in 2 years flat.

The Spine of Iraq was something that economists gushed over. It connected Mosul in the North to Basra in the south. The freight corridor conveyed oil to the Ports and food and imported goods to all cities along its path. The opportunities were endless. And Saddam had demonstrated that when his government announced the opening up of Special Economic Zones in and around Tikrit surrounding the freight corridor.

But what Fazal had found more astounding was the deliberate and relatively bloodless way in which the Iraqi Army ended hostilities with the Kurds.

A colleague of Fazals had taken a trip to Iraq to study the impact of Saddam's up-or-out policy for government offices and came back excitedly sharing news that the policy could possibly change the way governments aligned their operations. That colleague had estimated that the policy unlocked a couple of percentage points of real GDP just by increasing efficiency and who knew what the long term knock on effects would be.

When Jalal Talabani, former rebel and former Governor of Erbil took up the role of Minister of Finance for Iraq, Fazal had not paid much attention. And then one fine day Talabani called him and suggested that he come and take up the role of Central Bank Governor.

The massive Government spending of the previous few years had spiked inflation in Iraq to an annual rate of 10%, putting a damper on the new miracle. Talabani had told Fazal that when the Government insisted that the Central Bank take appropriate steps to combat the inflation, they found the personnel at the bank woefully incompetent. So the job was two fold, to combat inflation and to set up a new Central Bank that would play the role that such banks were meant to play in the economy of a developed nation.

Fazals wife had been extremely unhappy when he told her that he was seriously considering the job. There were far more economists in the world than Central Banks and especially the idea of contributing to modernizing Iraq and leaving his impact excited Fazal like nothing else. But Fazals wife, also an Iraqi Kurd by origin hated the country for what it had done to her family. Nightly rows affected their home life. Ultimately his wife had only given way when she realised how much the job would pay and when he promised her that he would head to Iraq alone and would make it clear to Talabani that he would only work as the Governor for 3 years.

He was paid a helluva a lot of money. There were no perks in the new Iraq, just straight cash. But Baghdad was a different Baghdad from what he had been told. Crime was down to negligible numbers, the streets were clean and everything worked like clockwork. But he was expected to work hard and competently. And he did. His first act as the new Governor was to hike interest rates significantly. It dampened the economic mood somewhat but not for too long. There was just too much foreign investment in the SEZs to stop the foreign funds from flowing in.

He worked day and night with little respite. It was hard, engaging stuff. Beating inflation hadn't been as difficult as restructuring the Central bank. There simply wasnt enough good talent to fill all roles. So he had made calls to fellow Iraqi refugees and expats to entice them to return.

In the hour or so of free time he got every day he managed to marvel over some of the policies that Kamal Hana Gegeo, Saddam's Chief of Staff had implemented. The SEZ policy was a work of art. There were very few outright restrictions or negative covenants, instead the whole thing was an intricate web of positive incentives driving interested parties towards the outcomes that the Government clearly wanted: fully local employment, higher proportion of women employed, skills training and transfer of technology, focus on the electronics, pharmaceuticals, heavy machinery sectors.

But all the bonhomie had come to a screeching halt when he had received a call from Ahmed Habeeb that a whistleblower complaint had been received about corruption in the Central Bank. His wife had wept and cursed on the phone as he told her that al-Mukhbarati himself would be conducting the investigation.

The whistleblower system was also an impressive design despite how it could now hurt him. Whistleblower complaints were investigated and if found to be true, the whistleblower stood to earn millions of dollars as a reward. But if they were found to be false the whistleblower would be investigated in turn with a harsh jail sentence guaranteed if the complaint had been filed maliciously.

In Saddam's words, "Murder destroys families, corruption destroys nations." If Fazal was implicated in corruption he knew he would never see the light of day again. He had thought about fleeing but he was just an academic, he didnt know how to arrange an escape. And he had done nothing wrong, fleeing would shame him and his family forever. So he girded his loins and hoped for the best.

After a month of interviewing the new and old Central Bank employees, Ahmed Habeeb was due to give his final decision today. And Fazal had not been able to work the entire day. He was sweating despite the pleasant winter weather.

At five p.m. Ahmed Habeeb walked into Fazals office. Fazal almost soiled himself. Al Mukhbarati was a tall man with a ramrod posture. He was notorious for never smiling. He was carrying a blue file folder.

Ahmed Habeeb walked upto Fazals desk and stood there staring down at the Central Bank Governor for a few moments. Fazal couldn't help but gulp audibly.

Then Ahmed Habeeb chucked the file folder onto the desk and said, "You run a tight ship. The investigation is complete, i found no evidence of truth to the whistleblower complaint."

Relief, sheer relief flooded through Fazals body. He was going to go home and drink a bottle of whiskey to celebrate. That or sleep early.

Ahmed Habeeb turned to leave but Fazal just had to ask, "Now what?"

Ahmed Habeeb paused, "Now I investigate the so called whistleblower."

Fazal prayed for the man.