The Iraqi government earlier this month decided in a cabinet meeting to pay 618 billion dinars (about $471 million) to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). The payment is aimed at covering the Kurdistan Region’s share in the federal budget for the month of January. Despite the Iraqi government’s decision, the KRG has yet to be paid the sum that will cover the salaries of the civil servants of the Kurdistan Region.
In December, Iraqi Finance Minister Taif Sami sent a six-point note to Erbil regarding issues with the list of civil servants and retirees of the Region presented by the KRG. The list featured the repetition of employee names and failed to detail employees’ gender, ranks, and salaries, in addition to most of the data being in Kurdish.
The finance minister’s comments on the KRG’s list prompted speculations about Sami not approving the payment of Erbil’s January budget share.
Jamal Kochar, a member of the Iraqi parliament, told Rudaw’s Nwenar Fatih that the delay in the payment is due to low financial liquidity in Baghdad, and not a decision made by Sami.
“The finance minister does not have this authority [not to approve payment], because the top two authorities [in Iraq] have taken this decision,” said Kochar, referring to the Iraqi parliament and the government.
The KRG has said that it needs over 900 billion dinars (about $686 million) monthly to cover its payroll, but with its oil exports through Turkey halted since March, it does not have the funds. In September, Erbil and Baghdad struck a deal that saw the federal government agree to loan the KRG 2.1 trillion Iraqi dinars in three 700-billion-dollar (about $534 million) installments, to cover the salaries of the months of September, October, and November.
Kochar noted that while Sami did not approve the spending of the last two installments of the 700 billion dinar loan, they were paid nonetheless due to the fact that the decision had been taken by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani.
Kochar stated that the finance minister’s comments are “normal and routine”, denying that it has anything to do with the delay in the payment.
Iraq passed its highly contentious budget bill for the years 2023, 2024, and 2025 in June. It includes a record $152 billion in spending, of which the Kurdistan Region’s share is 12.6 derived from Baghdad’s "actual spending."
The phrase “actual spending” in the budget law describes the amount of money Iraq spent or earned throughout a specific fiscal period.
The two governments have since been in talks to amend the federal budget to guarantee the payments to cover the salaries.
Kurdistan Region Nechirvan Barzani was in Baghdad earlier this month. He met with Sudani where “a serious discussion was held regarding the steps taken by the KRG and the federal government to resolve the issues of budget, employee salaries, resumption of Kurdistan Region’s oil exports and several other administrative, financial, and economic topics,”
During a speech at a ceremony of commemoration of influential Shiite cleric Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim on January 13, Barzani said that “Due to the lack of budget and salary in the Kurdistan Region, employees and citizens live in a very dire situation. This has negatively affected all sectors in the Kurdistan Region.”
