More cases referred to court by anti-graft body

AMMAN — The Jordan Integrity and Anti-Corruption Commission (JIACC) has recently referred three cases to court, involving abuse of public office, bribery and violations of laws and regulations, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported Sunday. 

One of the cases involves a "large industrial company" that allegedly committed tax evasion, having manipulated the bills it sent to the Income and Sales Tax Department in order to not pay the due taxes. 

Moreover, "tax assessors" involved in the case allegedly "unjustly" reduced the taxable amount from JD6 million to JD1.5 million which led to suspicion of bribery, Petra reported. 

Another case involved violations from the president of a board of directors at a company that finances small enterprises, who allegedly signed and implemented a real-estate purchase deal without the authorisation of the board and at a price higher by around JD1 million than the actual amount, according to experts, Petra reported. 

The said chairman also, allegedly, outsourced a maintenance contract for the estate in violation of the rules. 

JIACC also referred to judiciary a case that involves violations at a major municipality where the mayor and the district committee allegedly approved deducting JD52,000 parking lot fees for a housing company owned by the brother of the mayor.

The fee is way less than the due amount, the graft watchdog  said, which caused the Treasury “unjustified loss”. 

In a related development, JIACC’s prosecutor general sent the Amman Court of First Instance the case files for land sale fraud that involved 99 people comprising “traders and their accessories”, Petra reported, adding that 12 of them are still in custody. 

Previously, around JD49.847 million were returned to citizens who fell victims for land sale frauds, according to Petra.