Iraq ends a quarter of a year without a budget, and Parliament throws the ball in Sudanese court

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[size=52]Iraq ends a quarter of a year without a budget, and Parliament throws the ball in Sudanese court[/size]

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05-03-2024
After 4 months of the current year have passed, the state’s general budget for the year 2024 is still under government review, despite the facilities it enjoys as it is part of a “triple budget” for three years and only needs some adjustments in the numbers of the spending and revenue sections.[/size]
[size=45]The Ministry of Finance had sent the budget schedules more than a month ago to the Council of Ministers, but political and popular circles are still waiting for their approval, while the Parliamentary Economic Committee expects the Cabinet to agree on the general budget schedules for the year 2024 within the next week.[/size]
[size=45]The tripartite budget tables need to be reviewed periodically every year, to adjust project costs and salary bills and include new projects. This means that the budget does not need to be approved in full, since it was approved last year.[/size]
[size=45]Members of the House of Representatives criticized the government's delay in sending the amended budget schedules for the current year 2024 for study and approval.[/size]
[size=45]In this context, Representative Jassim Al-Alawi said, “The delay in the budget is due to governmental reasons, perhaps due to the instability of the exchange rate and the problem of financial allocations and covering expenses. Therefore, there may be the addition of paragraphs or treatment of segments that were exposed to fraud in the budget.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Alawi added, “Therefore, the delay is due to the government amending some of the schedules of this budget and then sending it to the House of Representatives to pass it.”[/size]
[size=45]For his part, Representative Mahma Khalil explained, “The first year of the tripartite budget must be adhered to, while the following two years, 2024 and 2025, are subject to change, but we have now entered the fifth month and the government has not sent the budget to the House of Representatives despite its demands for it.”[/size]
[size=45]Khalil pointed out that “the relevant parliamentary committees of finance and strategic planning have begun holding meetings with the competent authorities to overcome obstacles to changes in the budget schedules.”[/size]
[size=45]Khalil held the federal government responsible for the delay, adding: “The Ministry of Finance would have been better off sending the budget early to see the changes in it, especially since the legislative term of the House of Representatives is approaching its end date.”[/size]
[size=45]While Parliament awaits sending the budget schedules and despite its efforts to extend the legislative term in order to ratify them, the Council of Ministers is still late in sending them, while the last cabinet session undermined the expectations that were talking about passing the budget schedules.[/size]
[size=45]The bylaws of the House of Representatives stipulate that the legislative recess be postponed and that the House be considered permanently in session upon the arrival of the general budget, because its approval is one of the most important duties of the House, if not the most important.[/size]
[size=45]In this regard, the economic expert, Abdul Rahman Al-Sheikhli, stated that “when the (tripartite) budget was approved, it was to avoid conflicts when preparing the budget for the next two years, 2024 and 2025, but problems occurred in preparing the tables attached to this budget, so when the tripartite budget was issued, it only included tables for the year 2023 only, and the schedules for 2024 have not been received yet.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Sheikhly stated, “The country has entered the fifth month of the year, and yesterday a member of the Finance Committee stated that the approval of the schedules attached to the 2024 budget may be delayed for a full month, despite Law No. 16 of 2009 stipulating that the budget is prepared 3 months before the end of the year.”[/size]
[size=45]He added, “This shortcoming is borne by the Finance Committee and the Ministry of Finance when the schedules were not sent, and even the Council of Ministers, which did not confirm the necessity of completing them,” explaining that “one of the Ministry of Finance’s justifications for not completing the schedules is that institutions not affiliated with a ministry have not yet submitted lists of their needs and obligations.” “.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Sheikhly continued his speech, “In addition to the large number of new projects, amounting to about 1,300 projects, that were added to the 2024 budget and were not included in the 2023 budget, in addition to a million new employees who were appointed and were not taken into account.”[/size]
[size=45]He pointed out that “the 2024 budget must include allocations for the next elections that will be held in 2025, for which no amounts have been allocated so far, and all of these will put pressure on the preparation of the 2024 budget schedules, which led to their delay.”[/size]
[size=45]A member of the Parliamentary Economic Committee, Soran Omar, agreed with what the previous speakers said that “the government and the Ministry of Finance are the reason for delaying the 2024 budget.”[/size]
[size=45]Omar suggested that “the Council of Ministers will agree on the budget schedules during the next week, and then they will be sent to the House of Representatives for approval.”[/size]
[size=45]On June 12, 2023, the House of Representatives voted on the federal budget law for the years 2023, 2024, and 2025, in an initiative that is the first of its kind in the country’s history in terms of the size of the budget as well as the number of fiscal years, with a value of 197 trillion and 828 billion dinars, with a financial deficit of 63. One trillion dinars, or nearly a third of the budget.[/size]
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