The Kurdistan government demands Baghdad to achieve justice, pay salaries, and amend the budget

POSTED ON[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] BY [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

[size=52]The Kurdistan government demands Baghdad to achieve justice, pay salaries, and amend the budget[/size]

[size=45][You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
2023-12-06
On Wednesday, the Kurdistan Region Council of Ministers called on the federal government to achieve justice towards the region’s employees and pay their due salaries, while preparing and approving a draft law amending the federal budget law to ensure the region’s salaries are paid and referring it to the Iraqi Parliament.[/size]
[size=45]This came during the weekly meeting of the Kurdistan Region Council of Ministers, headed by Prime Minister Masrour Barzani and in the presence of Deputy Speaker Qubad Talabani, and discussed a number of topics on its agenda.[/size]
[size=45]At the beginning of the meeting, the Prime Minister, on behalf of the Council, welcomed the return of Peshmerga Minister Shorsh Ismail to the Council of Ministers meetings and the resumption of his work and duties.[/size]
[size=45]The Prime Minister also presented an overview of the results of the meetings of the Kurdistan Region delegation at the Global Climate Action Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.[/size]
[size=45]In the first paragraph of the agenda, the concerned ministers presented the latest developments related to the budget share and salaries of the Kurdistan Region in light of the discussions held by the region’s negotiating delegation, during its recent visit to Baghdad last week.[/size]
[size=45]The negotiating delegation also presented the necessary clarifications to the Council of Ministers, indicating that despite reaching a common understanding in Baghdad stipulating that the entitlements of salary recipients must be separated from political differences and obligations, it emphasized the disbursement of the region’s salary allocations according to the tables attached to the budget law without applying the actual spending standard. And not linking employee financial benefits to political differences.[/size]
[size=45]The negotiating delegation indicated that the recent negotiations, and what was presented to the region’s negotiating delegation, do not radically resolve this issue and do not address the problem of the entitlements of all of the region’s salary recipients, which amount to 944 billion dinars per month, and more than 11 trillion dinars annually, which was reviewed and audited by the audit team. The joint work of the Federal Financial Supervision Bureau and the region, and therefore what the federal government is practicing is a clear, explicit and unjustified violation of the constitutionally guaranteed rights of the citizens of Kurdistan.[/size]
[size=45]The Council of Ministers called on the federal government to prepare a draft law amending the Federal General Budget Law in the Council of Ministers as soon as possible and approve it, and then refer it to the House of Representatives with the aim of securing the entitlements of salary recipients in the region as stated in the budget law tables, far from the standard of actual spending and disputes, and at the level Politically, all political parties that formed the cabinet of the Federal Prime Minister, Mr. Muhammad Shiaa Al-Sudani, must support the draft law amending the budget law, so that salary recipients in the region can receive their salaries on time without delay, like their peers in the rest of Iraq’s regions, towards achieving the justice embodied in the Constitution in The principle of equality of citizens before the law, and that financial benefits are sent to the Kurdistan Region within the framework of the signed agreements and the budget law, so that the Kurdistan Region Ministry of Finance can distribute them to those entitled to them.[/size]
[size=45]On the other hand, the Kurdistan Region fulfilled all its obligations and duties towards the federal government, as the joint audit team of the Federal Financial Supervision Bureaus and the region undertook the process of auditing and reviewing all revenues, spending and job cadres in the region. In addition, the region implemented its oil obligations towards the Federal Ministry of Oil by handing over Oil for local use. However, the federal government has not paid any sums of money to oil companies. Therefore, there is no justification for the federal government not to disburse the financial benefits to the salary recipients. We consider the federal government solely responsible for delaying salaries, and we demand that it send the financial benefits to the salary recipients in region and not delay it from now on.[/size]
[size=45]In the second paragraph of the meeting's agenda, the Deputy Prime Minister presented a report on cases of violence against women, pointed out the causes of violence and ways to address them, and called on the ministries and concerned authorities to cooperate in implementing the strategy to combat violence against women and the family.[/size]
[size=45]The Prime Minister stressed the importance of protecting women’s rights in the Kurdistan Region, and the need to take the necessary measures to punish the perpetrators of violence against women, which is something that cannot be tolerated in any way. The Prime Minister also directed government institutions to launch a large-scale awareness campaign to eliminate violence. Against women.[/size]
[size=45]After that, the Minister of Interior, Reber Ahmed, submitted a report in which he referred to his meeting with the Supreme Council for Women and Development and a number of civil society organizations, based on the direction of the Prime Minister, with the aim of removing the obstacles to the implementation of laws and instructions related to combating violence against women.[/size]
[size=45]The Council of Ministers expressed its support for the proposals and recommendations included in the report and the aforementioned meeting. It also renewed its support for the General Directorate for Combating Violence against Women and the Family, and other organizations working in this field, in order to put an end to violence against women.[/size]
[size=45]At the conclusion of the meeting, the Council of Ministers approved the proposal of the Minister of Municipalities and Tourism, Sasan Aouni, regarding exempting and reducing 15% of the debts incurred by subscribers to water services, for a period of 90 days from the date of publishing the instructions of the Ministry of Municipalities and Tourism to facilitate the implementation of the decision, provided that the decision is published in The Official Gazette, while the Ministry of Municipalities and Tourism will later publish the details related to this matter.[/size]
[size=45][You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]