An Iraqi court has cleared the former head of Iraq's Grain Board of corruption charges, and the state agency's grain tenders have not been jarred by a high-reaching corruption scandal, officials said.
Trade Ministry spokesman Faraj al-Jaafari said the board, which buys millions of tonnes of grain a year, had weathered the storm that prompted the former trade minister to resign and highlighted widespread corruption inside the Iraqi government.
"There are wheat and rice vessels arriving and there is no problem ... On the contrary, many contracts have been signed to import wheat from leading countries," Jaafari said.
The charges against senior officials in the Trade Ministry, which includes the Grain Board, over alleged kickbacks or fraud in food imports caused a stir across Iraq this spring.
Some officials fled through the Trade Ministry's back entrance in April when government forces arrived to serve them warrants. The ministry's then-spokesman was hauled away.
Trade Minister Abdul Falah al-Sudani has since resigned and was released on bail after he was arrested trying to leave the country. One of his brothers, a close aide, is under arrest and the other is on the run.
Muthanna Jabbar, the former head of the Grain Board, was also charged. But he said he has since been cleared and has returned to work, although in a lower position.
"The case was related to tea and lentils. The Grain Board has nothing to do with tea tenders or anything but wheat, rice and barley," he told news agency Reuters.
One of Jabbar's former deputies, Hassan Ibrahim, who headed the board's imports division, has taken over as head of the board on an acting basis. Jabbar said he will serve as a deputy director general.
The ministry also includes another agency that purchases other foodstuff distributed as part of a massive food rations programme, the centrepiece of Iraq's social safety net.
That agency's tenders for tea and sugar have been taken over by a committee set up by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Jabbar defended his disappearance following the issue of the arrest warrants in April, which led to a confusing period in which questions were raised about whether the board's grain tenders, closely watched by commodity markets, would continue.
"What is a person to do when there is an arrest warrant issued against him? Should he show up at work just to get arrested?" Jabbar asked.
On June 7, Jabbar went to a court in southern Iraq, where the case was located, to present documents and was cleared.
"The judge asked me if I was a member of the board that purchased the tea. I said no," he said.
It was not the first corruption scandal to hit the Grain Board or Trade Ministry, seen as particularly vulnerable to wrongdoing since they handle such frequent, large procurements.
Sudany was not available for comment but his ministry has blamed disgruntled former officials for all allegations.