Government reforms have no legal framework despite two years of its launch

Government reforms have no legal framework despite two years of its launch


 Baghdad / Wael Ne'ma

Even two years after the prime minister launched his reforms, two former ministers confirm that they still do not know the feasibility of Abadi's measures to cancel some ministries and merge them. They assert that the integration of the staff of some ministries with other ministries has led to a 50-70% rise in their salaries, in contrast to the austerity policy behind the Prime Minister's actions.
In August 2015, Prime Minister Haider Abadi decided to merge and abolish 11 ministries between them and the Ministries of Human Rights, Science and Technology.
So far, the financial viability of the ministries' ministries, which were before the reforms, has not been clearly demonstrated.
These reasons prompted parliament to hesitate to accept the reforms and to neglect a law introduced a year ago on the structure of the ministries.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, then, said that the ministerial reshuffle, which came after other reformist decisions, was "a major blow to the quota system."
The parliament voted two days after the first reform package, in which Abadi canceled the posts of his deputies and vice-presidents, before withdrawing his mandate after three months.
Amidst the popular demonstrations demanded, at that time, accounting for the Minister of Electricity Qassim Fahdawi on the poor energy processing in the country, Abadi surprised everyone to announce a package of reforms included the abolition and integration of ministries not including the Ministry of Fahdawi!
The cancellation included the Ministry of Human Rights, which was run by Mohammed al-Bayati, a Turkoman from the Badr bloc, and the Ministry of State for Women's Affairs, which was headed by the Kurdish minister and the only woman in the cabinet.
The Ministry of Science and Technology, which was headed by the only Christian minister Faris Jajo, was merged with the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, and the Ministry of Environment and Health, the Ministry of Municipalities in the Ministry of Construction and Housing and the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities were merged with the Ministry of Culture.
Deputies at the time expected the slack, which angered minorities, to cut 25 percent of the cadres and refer them to retirement. The Prime Minister's office has said that the confusion of the ministries will only last a few months.

What does the government want?
"Two years after the decision to abolish the ministry, the work is still confused and the staff are concerned about the changes," said Faris Jajo, the minister of science in Damascus.
Jajo said in an interview with Al-Mada yesterday that his ministry had "provided many services to researchers and professors, who did not find their goal in the Ministry of Higher Education."
The Christian minister believes that "
The government not know what you want so far behind the abolition of science and technology, or reduce the number of ministries. " It was a government advisor told the minister Almrhq, at the time of the abolition of his ministry, that" the government sees science and technology cemetery for scientists! " The
minister deportee asserts that" the integration of the Ministry of Technology 's decision Iraq has lost important research projects, and a ministry with a good reputation and agreements with the world. "
Recently, the Minister of Higher Education and Science and Technology Abdul Razzaq al-Issa announced the purchase of equipment idle hundreds of millions of dinars in the Ministry of Science before merging with the Ministry of Education He also noted that he found staff carrying Certified Certificates "There were
mistakes in the ministry, which had more than 11,000 employees," he says, "but many have been repaired in the ministry, and files of corruption have been submitted to integrity."
The latter has left the government free of Christians, for the first time in the history of Iraq since the monarchy.
The component continued to be unrepresented until parliament last year approved the appointment of Christian Anne Nafi as Minister of Housing.

Human rights file in
return the prime minister has failed so far to compensate for the Turkmen office , who lost the abolition of the Human Rights Ministry. The file of completion of the government cab had stumbled after Abadi failed to persuade parliament to give the Ministry of Industry or Trade of the Turkmen component. The Turkmen, after the abolition of the Ministry of Human Rights, closed a strategic road between Baghdad and Kirkuk for a full day, before reopening it after government pledges to find another position for the component. "The government, when it wanted to absorb the anger of the street against the Ministry of Electricity, dissolved human rights," said Mohamed al-Bayati, the outgoing human rights minister.
Al-Bayati, in an interview with Al-Mada, said yesterday that "
Ministry staff were transferred all of them to the Ministries of Defense, Foreign Affairs , Justice, the Office of Human Rights. " The ministry was, described by al - Bayati , " the Directorate of size, "includes 1240 employees.
But a bad thing, according to the minister Almrhq, not the transfer of staff, but human rights files Which has been scattered and distributed between the ministries and bodies The
transfer of the remains of victims of the Iraq war - Iran to the institution of martyrs and the file of human rights violations to the Office of Human Rights "
Al - Bayati believes that" the State no longer has a single file on human rights, "The Commission is incomplete and can not do much in the rights file Human".

Debate
In the midst of government reforms, expectations have gone to the possibility that Abbadi could reduce his government to 15 or even 10 ministries, after merging other ministries such as agriculture with water resources, industry with trade and others.
The escalating objections to the legality of the merger, combined with rising costs rather than austerity, prompted the prime minister to send bills to reform his reforms a year after they were launched.
Al-Bayati criticized the decision to merge ministries, saying that "the salaries of employees increased by 50% - 70% after moving to other ministries."
Former Minister of Science Faris Jajou says that "the merger of the ministry with others is causing chaos because of the different laws of the two ministries."
The parliament decided, in November 2015, "to retain its powers and not to delegate it to another party," what was considered at the time as a "retreat" Of the former parliament's mandate to the government "reforms", and that the actions of the prime minister became "illegal."
Last summer, the government sent to parliament a draft of a six-item law to legitimize the merging of ministries, which was then considered "illegal" because it came after government measures.
A few days later, parliament read the draft law for the first time, and then left it because of the intense differences that emerged over the merger proceedings.
"Parliament has not yet agreed on the issue of merging ministries or how to regulate their situation," said Amin Bakr, a member of the legal committee. "The political forces are divided on the law of integration, between those who support the existence of a law for each ministry that has been merged, or one law for all ministries," Bakr said in a statement.
The draft government law provides for the transfer of the formations of those ministries that have been merged, with all their obligations and assets, into the ministries merged with them. The draft law, in article III / III, states that "the government shall set up a committee to carry out the tasks and tasks carried out by the Ministry of Human Rights."
Article 4 of the draft law "abolishes the laws of ministries: human rights, the environment and tourism."
In turn, says Rasul Abu Hasna, a member of the Dawa Party, that "the parliament read the draft law to merge ministries for one time and did not discuss again."
In recent months, the relevant committees of the parliament have met to discuss the merger of ministries, MPs warned of that step, and a change in the basis of the work of some ministries.
"Despite disagreements over the law, the parliament must read it for the second reading, and then accept it or reject it," Abu Hasna said in an interview with Al-Mada. Article 4 of the draft law "abolishes the laws of ministries: human rights, the environment and tourism." In turn, says Rasul Abu Hasna, a member of the Dawa Party, that "the parliament read the draft law to merge ministries for one time and did not discuss again." In recent months, the relevant committees of the parliament have met to discuss the merger of ministries, MPs warned of that step, and a change in the basis of the work of some ministries. "Despite disagreements over the law, the parliament must read it for the second reading, and then accept it or reject it," Abu Hasna said in an interview with Al-Mada. Article 4 of the draft law "abolishes the laws of ministries: human rights, the environment and tourism." In turn, says Rasul Abu Hasna, a member of the Dawa Party, that "the parliament read the draft law to merge ministries for one time and did not discuss again." In recent months, the relevant committees of the parliament have met to discuss the merger of ministries, MPs warned of that step, and a change in the basis of the work of some ministries. "Despite disagreements over the law, the parliament must read it for the second reading, and then accept it or reject it," Abu Hasna said in an interview with Al-Mada. In recent months, the relevant committees of the parliament have met to discuss the merger of ministries, MPs warned of that step, and a change in the basis of the work of some ministries. "Despite disagreements over the law, the parliament must read it for the second reading, and then accept it or reject it," Abu Hasna said in an interview with Al-Mada. In recent months, the relevant committees of the parliament have met to discuss the merger of ministries, MPs warned of that step, and a change in the basis of the work of some ministries. "Despite disagreements over the law, the parliament must read it for the second reading, and then accept it or reject it," Abu Hasna said in an interview with Al-Mada.


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