Iraqi Parliament forms committee to monitor Kurdistan’s financial entitlements

Shafaq News/ The Finance Committee of the Iraqi Parliament announced that a newly formed subcommittee will begin its work next week to monitor the distribution of Kurdistan’s financial entitlements. Officials from the Ministry of Finance, the Federal Board of Supreme Audit, and the Iraqi Central Bank (CBI) will be invited to verify the allocation process.

Committee member Mustafa Al-Kar’awi stated, “The Parliamentary Finance Committee recently established a subcommittee to oversee Kurdistan’s financial entitlements for 2024-2025 and audit the data provided by the Baghdad government. This move follows objections raised by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).”

He added, “The committee will host officials from relevant federal institutions and thoroughly audit the figures and data as requested by the Region to ensure transparency and fairness.”

“The primary goal of this parliamentary initiative is to protect citizens from political disputes and ensure they receive their entitlements and salaries on time,” Al-Kar’awi emphasized.

The subcommittee, chaired by Ahmed Mazhar Al-Jubouri, the first deputy head of the finance committee, comprises six members: Uday Awad Kazem, Nermin Marouf Ghafour, Mustafa Khalil Al-Kar’awi, Faisal Hassan Sukkar Al-Naili, Jamal Kocher, and Samir Mubarak Mirza (finance committee rapporteur).

The formation of this subcommittee coincides with heightened demands from the KRG and its representatives in Baghdad for the federal government to fully fund public sector salaries in the Region for 2024.

During a press conference in Erbil following an extraordinary KRG meeting, government spokesperson Peshawa Hawramani stated, “The attendees demanded the federal government release the Region’s full share of the budget for 2024, not merely monthly salaries.”

He revealed that Baghdad has, so far, sent less than 7% of Kurdistan’s financial entitlements and failed to fulfill its promise to deliver salaries for December 2024. “This treatment undermines Kurdistan’s constitutional federal status,” Hawramani noted, highlighting that the Region has already submitted comprehensive statistics on financial revenues and public sector employees to Baghdad.

The Kurdish Ministry of Finance also criticized the federal Ministry of Finance for not adhering to decisions by the Federal Supreme Court regarding salary funding. In a statement, the ministry denied allegations of withholding non-oil revenues for 2024 and expressed frustration over delays in salary disbursements.

“The federal finance ministry’s claim that it is not responsible for delays is inaccurate,” the KRG ministry countered. “The delay stems from Baghdad’s failure to localize employee salaries as mandated by the Federal Supreme Court.”