KRG finance, legal bodies fail to meet quorum to review pension bill
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Not enough members showed up to a planned meeting of the KRG’s finance and legal committees to prepare a report on a contentious article of a reform bill that has been stalled in the parliament.
The two committees were due to meet on Saturday to discuss one article of the economic reform bill that addresses pensions for high-ranking officials.
Termed ‘special ranks,’ these officials include retired ministers, deputy ministers, consultants, general directors, and some Peshmerga who were awarded the position in return for their service to the Kurdish struggle for freedom before the formation of the KRG when they fought against the previous regime.
The public wants to see these pensions reduced while MPs have argued they should be equalized with Iraqi standards.
PUK MP Rewaz Fayaq said their planned meeting failed to meet quorum after Gorran, Komal, and KIU members of the two committees did not attend as well as two PUK and KDP members.
Each committee has 11 members, but only five from each showed up.
“The absentees are from all the parties,” Fayaq said, adding they will reschedule the meeting.
The PUK and KDP members together with minorities will be able to meet the quorum, she added.
She believes there is no intention to deter the bill from passing, explaining that the parliament would be able to convene on the matter within a day of these committees preparing their report.
The parliament passed the rest of the reform bill on February 27. The bill introduced reforms to the salaries of public employees and pensioners, including cleaning the list of beneficiaries, preventing duplicate benefits and double-salary holders, and institutionalizing the pension program.
Now law, the changes set the minimum wage for pensioners at 300,000 Iraqi dinars (about $253), while it allocates 4 million dinars (about $3,375) as pensions for Kurdish MPs. These, in part, led to wide-spread public protests about salaries and parliamentarians effectively setting their own wages.
The bill could save the KRG 100-120 billion dinars ($84.4 – $101.3 million) monthly, the amount needed to end an unpopular salary saving system that slashed salaries for public employees under.
Some Kurdish MPs accused others of delaying passage of the pension measure for politically-motivated agendas.
“The differences are not huge, but the atmosphere of election campaigning has made some complications,” Jaafar Iminiki, deputy speaker of the parliament, had told Rudaw in early April.
The two committees were due to meet on Saturday to discuss one article of the economic reform bill that addresses pensions for high-ranking officials.
Termed ‘special ranks,’ these officials include retired ministers, deputy ministers, consultants, general directors, and some Peshmerga who were awarded the position in return for their service to the Kurdish struggle for freedom before the formation of the KRG when they fought against the previous regime.
The public wants to see these pensions reduced while MPs have argued they should be equalized with Iraqi standards.
PUK MP Rewaz Fayaq said their planned meeting failed to meet quorum after Gorran, Komal, and KIU members of the two committees did not attend as well as two PUK and KDP members.
Each committee has 11 members, but only five from each showed up.
“The absentees are from all the parties,” Fayaq said, adding they will reschedule the meeting.
The PUK and KDP members together with minorities will be able to meet the quorum, she added.
She believes there is no intention to deter the bill from passing, explaining that the parliament would be able to convene on the matter within a day of these committees preparing their report.
The parliament passed the rest of the reform bill on February 27. The bill introduced reforms to the salaries of public employees and pensioners, including cleaning the list of beneficiaries, preventing duplicate benefits and double-salary holders, and institutionalizing the pension program.
Now law, the changes set the minimum wage for pensioners at 300,000 Iraqi dinars (about $253), while it allocates 4 million dinars (about $3,375) as pensions for Kurdish MPs. These, in part, led to wide-spread public protests about salaries and parliamentarians effectively setting their own wages.
The bill could save the KRG 100-120 billion dinars ($84.4 – $101.3 million) monthly, the amount needed to end an unpopular salary saving system that slashed salaries for public employees under.
Some Kurdish MPs accused others of delaying passage of the pension measure for politically-motivated agendas.
“The differences are not huge, but the atmosphere of election campaigning has made some complications,” Jaafar Iminiki, deputy speaker of the parliament, had told Rudaw in early April.