ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Ten committees formed by Baghdad to audit the list of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Health and Education Ministries are set to visit Erbil on Monday for further auditing as well to conduct field visits.
The 10 committees, which were formed weeks ago, will audit lists of employees of both the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health.
“On Monday, the Iraqi auditing bodies for reviewing the KRG’s employees in the Ministries of Health and Education will visit Erbil. They will meet with both ministries separately and then initiate their work,” said Vian Mohammed, Director General of Planning in the KRG’s Ministry of Health.
The Kurdish delegation, which was accompanied by financial advisors, visited Baghdad last week per the request of their Iraqi counterpart. The ten committees will conduct their work in two different manners.
One group will look into the lists of employees provided by the two ministries and another group, mostly from an Iraqi financial body, will visit hospitals and schools to ascertain whether or not there are ghost employees and if the number of employees is appropriate for each school, according to Ameen Bakir, an Iraqi MP.
Ghost employees and people receiving double salaries are considered the biggest issue for the KRG. The KRG’s Council of Ministers has introduced a reform bill to eliminate ghost employees and those receiving double salaries.
The KRG last year created a digital list of its employees known as the biometric list as a part of the reforms.
The two ministries have the largest number of employees besides the Ministry of Peshmerga.
The KRG has had to slash salaries of its employees due to the financial strains put on it by Baghdad cutting its budget and decreasing oil prices in addition to other issues.
The Kurdish delegation proposed paying one month’s salary to the employees of both ministries until the auditing is done. Rudaw has confirmed that Baghdad has opened an account for the KRG and deposited 450 billion Iraqi dinars (approximately $380 million) in it. However, it still requires the approval of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.
Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani met with Abadi on Saturday to discuss salaries of the KRG’s employees among other issues.
PM Abadi has said he is willing to pay the KRG state salaries, but only after auditing the payroll lists.
Another delegation from the Iraqi Ministry of Oil agreed with a KRG delegation last week on an oil-for-budget arrangement.
Baghdad has paid salaries for employees of the KRG’s dams.
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