“We are waiting tomorrow for the funds that the Iraqi Council of Ministers decided on to be delivered to the Kurdistan Regional Government’s [KRG] account so that we can begin distributing salaries,” Awat Sheikh Janab told reporters in Sulaimani.
The Iraqi government earlier this month decided in a cabinet meeting to pay 618 billion dinars (about $471 million) to the KRG. The payment is aimed at covering the Kurdistan Region’s share in the federal budget for the month of January.
Despite Baghdad’s decision, the KRG has yet to be paid the sum that will cover the salaries of the Kurdistan Region’s civil servants.
“We have cut all their excuses and implemented everything they have asked for,” Janab said, praising Kurdish ministers and MPs in Baghdad for their efforts to resolve the issue and stressing that “we have done everything we can.”
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.
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 on Tuesday that the delay in the payment is due to low financial liquidity in Baghdad, and not a decision made by Sami.
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.
Earlier in January, the KRG Council of Ministers labeled the recent budget talks with Baghdad regarding the unpaid salaries as “positive.”
