Finance Minister Awat Sheikh Janab, a member of the Change Movement (Gorran), will boycott meetings of the council of ministers in protest of being held responsible for the Kurdistan Region’s financial crisis and the government’s failure to pay its employees after lawmakers, many from the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), blamed him for public sector salary cuts in Monday's parliament session, a source told Rudaw.
"The minister of finance is concerned about making it seem like the problem is the minister of finance when it's not," Kardo Mohammad, a Gorran official, told Rudaw's Sangar Abdulrahman on Wednesday.
"The minister of finance is worried about how he will be treated," he added.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has had financial problems for years because of endemic corruption, budget disputes with Baghdad, low oil prices, the war with the Islamic State (ISIS), and the pandemic. It first introduced austerity measures in 2016, slashing salaries of its civil servants. Last year, payments from Baghdad covered roughly a third of the KRG’s payroll.
This year, the Kurdistan Region is yet to receive its share of the federal budget. In January, Erbil decided to cut salaries, meaning government employees who make more than 300,000 Iraqi dinars (approximately $200) per month see their paychecks cut by 21 percent.
A long-called-for parliamentary session on the budget and salaries was held on Monday. Seven senior officials and ministers, including Janab, attended to answer questions from MPs. Janab explained that the government runs a 450 billion dinars deficit every month Baghdad fails to send money.
Khalid Shwani, minister of state for negotiations with Baghdad, also attended the session and angrily defended his record. "We were given a government that was $28 billion in debt,” he said.
He questioned oil contracts signed by previous administrations that give more than half the revenues to multinational companies. "I am asking you, as a citizen of the Kurdistan Region, who gave the right and power to our dear brothers to sign contracts where 58% of the people's fortunes are given to the companies and 42% to the Kurdistan Region?”
"I welcome all your criticism with an open heart. Let’s open the file of this case and see who is responsible. If it’s me, then take the needed measures,” he added. "I agree with all your words and I support you and I will do what I can and deliver your voices to the council of ministers, but I clearly say that I am not a part of the corruption that happened.”
The session lasted for almost 18-hours and was described as "unproductive" by MPs.
"It was an unproductive session, 18 hours of talking, and no one knows what the result of this session was," said Abubakar Haladni, an MP from the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU).
"Their talks are repetitive. Whatever there is, it's just ink on paper. It's just talk and nothing else," said Shayan Askari, a Gorran MP.
Gorran spokesperson Dler Abdulkhaliq accused the parliamentarians of agreeing ahead of time to blame Gorran and Janab for the problems.
"The people of the Kurdistan Region know very well that the salary cuts are a decision of the Council of Ministers. The prime minister and deputy prime minister are responsible for it," read a statement from Abdulkhaliq.
"The minister's concerns have been officially delivered to the president and deputy prime minister," he added.
Previous parliamentary sessions that discussed delayed salary payments sparked accusations of blame between the two ruling parties – the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
