The Iraqi government has not paid the budget of the Kurdistan region of Iraq until now, despite the parliament approved the country’s general financial budget at the end of last March.
Since last Monday, extensive meetings have been held between officials in the region, to reach understandings to end the dispute.
The region enjoys semi-independent rule since the US invasion of the country in 2003.
According to officials in Baghdad, the reason behind Baghdad’s failure to pay the region’s share is due to the Erbil’s stepping back on a number of files the later had agreed upon before the vote on the budget.
These files included conducting a field survey of the total number of employees in the region.
Iraqi budget
Baghdad questions the numbers submitted, which exceed one and quarter million employees, and believes there is corruption and the file is filled with fake employees. The government demands a review of the file, and oil imports to be delivered to Baghdad.
The sources confirmed that the parliament in Baghdad is pressuring the government regarding the region’s fulfillment of the agreements before sending its share of more than 11 trillion Iraqi dinars.
Member of the Iraqi parliament, Muhammad al-Sihoud, said that the negotiations taking place in Baghdad between the Kurdish negotiating delegation and the Iraqi government were not realistic and unsatisfactory so far.
He indicated that “the Kurdistan Regional Government still refuses to hand over oil imports to the Iraqi government and refuses to disclose the number of employees, while demanding its full share of the budget”.
“Kurdistan exports more than 600,000 barrels of oil daily without returning to the federal government. Contrary to all agreements, the region has not delivered oil imports to Baghdad since 2014 until now,” al-Sihoud said.
Positive results
A member of the Finance Committee in the previous parliamentary session, Najeba Najib, explained that “the ongoing negotiations between the Iraqi government and the negotiating delegation of the Kurdistan Regional Government have achieved positive results. But, until this moment, no amounts have reached the region despite the end of the first half of 2021.”
According to Najib, “the delay in the arrival of the region’s share of the budget has greatly affected the economic situation in the region, as a result of the delay in paying or disbursing employees’ salaries between one month and another and sometimes for two months”.
He indicated that 21% percent of the employees’ salaries were deducted due to the inability of the regional government to secure them in full.
Najib pointed to the reasons that contributed to the delay in sending the region’s share, and that it “was not political, as some promote, but rather technical and will be resolved quickly”.
He called on the Iraqi government to “speed up sending Kurdistan region’s share and not to procrastinate more”.
The Iraqi federal general budget for the year 2021 is estimated at more than 129 trillion dinars, and thus the Kurdistan Region’s share of the federal budget for this year is 11 trillion dinars.
