On Sunday, Rudaw’s Shahyan Tahseen interviewed Major-General Bakhtyar Muhammed, military advisor and member of the senior reform board in the Ministry of Peshmerga, to get the latest updates on the reform plan within the Ministry of Peshmerga.
The controversial bill, titled the Reform of Pensions, Salaries, Allowances, Grants and other Benefits, was passed in mid-January and signed into law by the President of the Kurdistan Region in early February.
The legislation’s stated aims include the elimination of ghost employees, other fraudulent claims to more than one civil service salary, the reduction of high pensions for MPs and other high ranking officials, as well as the standardization of retirement regulations. The law also seeks to eliminate illegally retired individuals, who have never served in government or security institutions, but receive retirement pay due to their association with party patronage networks.
The initial step of the law’s implementation applies to all pensioners of the Peshmerga ministry’s three directorates - including the one associated directly with the ministry, as well as the 80 and 70 unit forces of the ministry, which respectively belong to the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
Shahyan : How many employees are there in the Ministry of Peshmerga, and how many employee dossiers have been investigated?
Bakhtyar Muhammed: Like every other ministry in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the Ministry of Peshmerga has put together five sub-committees for the executing of the reform law, in coordination with a senior Ministry committee chaired by the Minister of Peshmerga. One of those committees will merge the Ministry’s wages and pay awards with that of Forces 70 and Forces 80’s. Another committee will review and systematize dossiers and documents of the employees and officers of the Ministry of Peshmerga. There are certain numbers that we cannot reveal at the moment, but we have worked on several dossiers.
So you cannot reveal how many dossiers have been worked on now? And what kind of dossiers have been looked into that were illegal in terms of promotion or even cases in which someone has illegally been awarded a service?
We have a committee that reviews lists of the disabled, martyred and retirees, in cooperation with the Ministry of Martyrs and Ministry of Finance. There are certainly some errors in some names as some people are illegally retired, or receive illegal disability allowances. Specialized committees, whether medical or administrative, in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Martyrs are looking into them and they have had good results. As soon as the process ends, we will announce the results to the public and the respected ministries.
When do you expect the process to end and results to be out? What do you mean when you say that the results are good?
The process started in July. We have measures for people who retire or become disabled. These measures are of an administrative, legal, and medical nature. These measures will once again be reviewed along with the list of beneficiaries. As the Ministry of Peshmerga, that was our starting step. I cannot say when the process will finish, as you know the pandemic has slowed down the process, but the process is ongoing.
You talked about different cases, such as martyrs, the disabled, and Peshmerga, do you plan to divide the cases and send them to specialized ministries such as the Ministry of Martyrs, Ministry of Social Affairs, and so on, or are you planning on keeping them all under the name of Peshmerga ministry?
Their services will stay within the Peshmerga ministry, but their retirement allowances will be transferred to a new retirement office that will fall under the finance ministry. All retirees of the KRG will be transferred to that office, and martyrs will be transferred to the ministry of martyrs.
There was a coalition reform project that consisted of more than 30 points; how much of that project has been adapted?
That project is also ongoing, some points are currently in the process of adaptation, and some others require a political collaboration to start. Among these points are turning salaries into an electronic system that will be paid through banks. Another one is reorganization of the different brigades. In the following days, two more brigades of the Peshmerga forces will be armed with the help of the Coalition forces.
How much of the project is left? Whose political collaboration is required?
The parties that have forces are the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and these forces need to collaborate together and work together to unite the forces, and this requires contribution from all administrative offices within the KRG.
Rank promotion in the Peshmerga ministry has been stopped for a while now; when will it resume?
The ministry of Peshmerga has stopped promotions since 2017. We sent the names of people who deserve a promotion back in 2017 to the KRG Council of Ministers, once accepted, it will be sent up to the presidency. When that is done, then we will send the names of people in 2018, 2019, and 2020.
As you are investigating the employees in your ministry, have you seen any kind of illegal activity?
There are definitely errors everywhere, however our teams are working on them. The process will be decided on after results are out, and we do not deny that there are problems, but we have solutions for them when the time comes.
There was collaboration between the KDP and PUK regarding the unification of Peshmerga forces. Does that still exist?
The Peshmerga forces consist of both KDP and PUK forces and the ministry itself is the result of an agreement between both parties. These forces need to be unified step by step, and that is why the allied forces are also helping us. While in the war against ISIS, Peshmerga forces were united, but we need political agreement between both parties to unite Peshmerga forces completely. We need to agree on why we need Peshmerga forces and how many of the forces we need, and then we can decide on many other things.
You talked about two brigades being armed in the following days, who is going to fund this process?
The Peshmerga forces salaries are paid by the KRG, but the ministry receives monthly help from America.
How much is the help that you gain from America, and will those two brigades be armed as part of that aid?
The two brigades will be fully armed with new American weaponry that the Coalition forces and America gladly provide help for.
Translation by Khazan Jengiz and Dilan S. Hussein
