US report: The number of Iraqi employees has tripled since 2003

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[size=52]US report: The number of Iraqi employees has tripled since 2003[/size]

[size=45]Translated by: Hamed Ahmed[/size]
[size=45]An American report confirmed that the number of employees in Iraq has tripled since the change of the previous regime, stressing that the public sector has become unproductive, and advised allocating money to those who did not get a government job or the earners and the poor.[/size]
[size=45]A report issued by the American Center for Economic Research Studies (Economics Research Forum), translated by (Al-Mada), stated that “Iraq has failed to employ the vast oil wealth in investments to develop infrastructure, the education and health care sector, and to provide job opportunities outside the scope of the public sector.”[/size]
[size=45]The report added, "This is at a time when the regime in Iraq after 2003 transformed from a dictatorial regime to a system of party pluralism, political consensus, and freedom."[/size]
[size=45]He pointed out that "the system of political governance that followed in the country after 2003 allowed influential political entities to use oil resources to create and maintain support networks to stay in power at times."[/size]
[size=45]And he stressed, "This happened through fictitious government contracts, as well as securing preferred government jobs. This means that there is nothing left, for example, for investment in the field of health and education for the citizen."[/size]
[size=45]The report pointed out that “the current economic structure that gives incentives to use public institutions for private political gains and the weakness of the rule of law has allowed corruption to spread and become pervasive in all institutions.”[/size]
[size=45]And he saw, “Within this logic, people who are chaste and who do not take bribes may not be allowed to remain in their positions.”[/size]
[size=45]The report talked about “the aspect of nepotism among the influential political parties, which caused the recruitment of employees to the public sector who are unqualified for their positions and incompetent.”[/size]
[size=45]He stressed, “The number of public sector employees has increased since 2003 by more than three times what it was previously, and this is what made the public sector unproductive and not as it was supposed to be.”[/size]
[size=45]He noted, "The intense competition to secure a job in the public sector is linked to Iraq's weak public welfare system."[/size]
[size=45]The report emphasized, "This system was described by the International Monetary Fund in its 2021 report as fragile and inefficient."[/size]
[size=45]He explained, “The system lacks a solid information base on the poor and those who should be targeted for care, such as war widows, housewives with orphaned children, and divorced women, and it is a system that does not prioritize the poor.”[/size]
[size=45]The report is based on “the Monetary Fund, which showed, before 2020, that 1.4 million families, not all of them poor, received salaries of 1.6% of GDP.”[/size]
[size=45]And the report finds, “Within these circumstances, employment in the public sector is the main driver for ensuring a financial resource for those who can get a job.”[/size]
[size=45]At the same time, he stated, “This is a very costly mechanism for the state. In 2017, for example, public sector salaries drained two-fifths of total public spending, up by 14% from the value of spending in 2005.”[/size]
[size=45]And he continues, “By the year 2020, the state was allocating 24% of the GDP to cover public sector salaries, and at the same time, there is no regulation to create job opportunities in the private sector, and there is no pension guarantee for those who have no work.”[/size]
[size=45]The report pointed out, "No job opportunities were created in the private sector, and therefore it is not possible to rely on the Iraqi labor market to create jobs with good financial returns."[/size]
[size=45]And he added, "The role of the private sector, as is the case with other countries in the Middle East, in increasing the gross domestic product in Iraq is low and even less than in other countries."[/size]
[size=45]And the report continued, that "there are structural and institutional reasons for these results, and among those reasons is Iraq's economy that depends entirely on oil, and it is a sector that generates money and employs a relatively limited number of employees."[/size]
[size=45]He stressed, "The lack of educational institutions that provide the market with skilled workers, in addition to brain drain and inefficient labor and employment laws."[/size]
[size=45]And the report goes on to say that “all these matters need long-term radical solutions,” explaining that “the outcome is that the Iraqi labor market cannot provide sufficient job opportunities today to absorb new entrants to the labor market.”[/size]
[size=45]And he recommended that “there be an amendment in the state’s public spending budget targeting those who did not get a government job or the earners and the poor.”[/size]
[size=45]And the report went on, “The need to allocate funds also from public spending to carry out infrastructure developments and more investments in improving the education and health care sectors.”[/size]
[size=45]It is noteworthy that Iraq is currently discussing a budget for three years, 75% of which has been allocated to the operational part, most of which are salaries for employees, retirees and the social welfare network, while the Finance Committee confirms that the budget includes 729 thousand new job degrees that go to ministries, institutions and governorates.[/size]
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