Parliamentary Finance: Our budgets are inaccurate due to the absence of final accounts

[size=52]Parliamentary Finance: Our budgets are inaccurate due to the absence of final accounts[/size]

[size=45]Baghdad/ Firas Adnan[/size]
[size=45]Yesterday, Monday, the Parliament’s Finance Committee denied being aware of the amount of abundance achieved from the increase in oil prices since the beginning of this year, and attributed this to the lack of access to the final accounts since 2014, stressing that this led to the development of budgets based on unrealistic speculations that are not based on Official documents.[/size]
[size=45]The committee’s rapporteur, Representative Ahmed Al-Saffar, said, in an interview with Al-Mada, that “the House of Representatives does not know precisely the amount of financial abundance that was achieved during the first six months of this year as a result of the rise in oil prices.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Saffar added, "The press statements issued by some deputies in this regard are just estimates in light of the prevailing prices in the global market, according to what is published by the specialized oil agencies."[/size]
[size=45]He pointed out, "The certain knowledge of this abundance is linked to the existence of final accounts and statements of exchange operations, and the money that is returned to the public treasury."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Saffar pointed out that “the preparation of a budget for the next year is supposed to start from the point at which the current budget has reached, and the actual implementation of it, which requires the presence of final accounts.”[/size]
[size=45]He stressed, "These data give us the actual need for expenditures in light of what has been allocated, the amount of actually spent, and the determination of the amount of revenue we obtained, whether from oil, border crossings, or other sources."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Saffar stressed that “the final accounts have not been available to the House of Representatives since 2014, and therefore the numbers that are continuously approved by the Finance Committee, as well as those sent by the government, remain speculative and estimated and lack reality, as they do not depend on real facts and documents.” . And the rapporteur of the Finance Committee added, “The recent meetings held by the committee with Minister of Finance Ali Abdel Amir Allawi and Central Bank Governor Mustafa Ghaleb Al-Kitab did not discuss the issue of financial abundance in the current budget.”[/size]
[size=45]He noted, "The dialogues focused on implementing the budget in the best way, providing facilities and dealing with red tape, as well as the government's role in overcoming the negative effects of changing the exchange rate and inflation in the markets, and trying to create job opportunities for the unemployed, especially those with diplomas."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Saffar went on to say, "The government's presentation of the final accounts will save us a great deal of time and effort in preparing the budget, as it guarantees transparency and informs the people's representatives of the movement of Iraqi funds between revenues and expenditures, and helps us enact a law commensurate with the economic and financial situation of the country, and overcoming the issue of speculation." For his part, a member of the committee, MP Muhammad Al-Shabki, said in a statement to (Al-Mada), that "there is more than one scenario regarding the financial abundance achieved from the increase in oil prices by good rates that exceed what was set in the budget."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Shabki added, "There is information indicating the government's intention to present a supplementary budget for the remainder of this year, taking advantage of this abundance, despite the difficulty of this procedure given the current circumstances."[/size]
[size=45]And he spoke about the possibility of "allocating this abundance for the next fiscal year and helping to feed the debt file owed to Iraq in order to expedite its payment."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Shabki pointed out that “what is important for us as MPs is to ask the government to speed up the presentation of the final accounts, and then the budget for next year in order to ensure its approval as soon as possible, especially as we accept early elections that will take place on the tenth of next October.”[/size]
[size=45]The Finance Committee had announced earlier that the government had formed a joint team among a number of ministries that is currently preparing the initial formulations of the budget, expressing its aspiration that the relevant ministries would accomplish their tasks as soon as possible, but warned against delaying the submission of the project, as happened with the current budget.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Shabki concluded, “It is important for the House of Representatives to continue its constitutional duties at the level of legislation and oversight until the last day of its current session; In order to follow up the arrival of the final accounts, as well as the draft budget law, in the hope that it will be voted on and not carried over to the next session.”[/size]
[size=45]It is noteworthy that the House of Representatives was long overdue in approving the budget law and did not vote on it until March 30, while the government and other parties took the initiative to challenge ten paragraphs of it distributed among six articles that are awaiting resolution through the Federal Supreme Court.[/size]
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