Last month, the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court ordered the KRG to submit a breakdown of the monthly budget for the Region’s employees’ salaries to the federal ministry of finance so that Baghdad could start paying the Region’s share from the federal budget. The ruling mandates the Kurdish government to open accounts for its employees at state-owned banks.
Iraq’s finance ministry said in a statement late Monday that following a letter to the ministry from the top court and based on the instructions of the Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani, it began sending the Region’s civil servants’ salaries for the month of February to the KRG. The Region’s security forces, including the Peshmerga forces, are not among the beneficiaries of the salaries paid by Baghdad according to the statement. This suggests that the salaries of the KRG’s security forces for the month of February might still be paid by Erbil.
“As for the payment of salaries for the month of March, it will take place once the Region meets the salary settlement requirements,” noted the ministry, referring to the opening of bank accounts for KRG employees.
The KRG’s finance ministry announced on Wednesday that it had sent the list of the Region’s civil servants to Baghdad.
“Creating [bank] accounts and issuing bank cards to employees in the Kurdistan Region is not an easy task and it may take more than a year for all employees to be issued bank cards,” Mohammed Zirari, the general director of the Kurdistan Region’s Board of Auditors told Rudaw’s Zana Kayani late last month.
Civil servants in the Kurdistan Region still receive their monthly wages in cash. In line with its digitalization campaign, the KRG in October launched of the “My Account” initiative aimed at digitizing the banking sector in the Kurdistan Region. As part of this project, the Region’s employees would see their salaries deposited in their accounts rather than receiving them in cash. Out of more than a million civil servants, bank accounts have been opened for only 220,000 employees so far and only around 100,000 of them have received their bank cards.
Iraq passed its highly contentious budget bill in June for the years 2023, 2024, and 2025, of which the Kurdistan Region's share is 12.6 percent but Erbil has accused Baghdad of not sending its share on time. Baghdad has claimed it has fully implemented its financial obligations to the KRG, including through loans to assist the Region in paying the salaries of its civil servants.
In a recent blow to the KRG, Iraq’s top court ruled that the Region’s oil and non-oil revenues must be handed over to Baghdad. In addition, all salaries are to be paid directly by the federal government, rather than by Erbil.
