There is no truth to the comparison with Kurdistan.. Budget allocations threaten provincial projects

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[size=52]There is no truth to the comparison with Kurdistan.. Budget allocations threaten provincial projects[/size]

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05-25-2024
A number of members of the Iraqi Council of Representatives believed that reducing financial allocations to the governorates in the 2024 budget will affect the level of service provision and the rates of project completion, and will also cast a shadow on various sectors, so it will not proceed in its current form due to the unfairness it contains to the governorates. This threatens to obstruct the resolution of budget schedules that are already late for nearly half a year.[/size]
[size=45]After approximately 6 months of the current year, the 2024 budget finally arrived at the House of Representatives, but with it came condemnations of its schedules, especially with regard to financial allocations to the governorates, amid demands to make amendments to it to ensure fair distribution of investment allocations between the governorates.[/size]
[size=45]Last Sunday, the Iraqi Council of Ministers voted in an extraordinary session on the federal general budget schedules for 2024 and referred them to the House of Representatives for approval.[/size]
[size=45]In turn, last Wednesday, the Parliamentary Finance Committee began holding its first meeting, a day after it received the budget schedules from the Acting Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mohsen Al-Mandalawi.[/size]
[size=45]The Finance Committee announced in a statement that it will hold its first meeting regarding the Federal General Budget Law for the year 2024, with the aim of developing a comprehensive plan to review and analyze the budget schedules and their items after they arrive from the Prime Minister’s Office.[/size]
[size=45]Reducing allocations threatens services[/size]
[size=45]In this regard, the representative of Babil Governorate, Hussein Al-Sabari, confirmed that “budget allocations to the governorates are a problem not only for Babil Governorate but also for most of the governorates of Iraq, as reducing the governorate budget will cause the delay of many projects and the disappearance of others, in addition to the reluctance of contractors and other problems.” “.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Saabari, a member of the Parliamentary Investment and Development Committee, added to Shafaq News Agency, “Members of the House of Representatives hoped and aspired that the governorates’ budget would be good to raise the level of service provision, but the government reduced the governorates’ budget, which will cause many problems, especially with regard to providing services to citizens.”[/size]
[size=45]“Incorrect phenomenon”[/size]
[size=45]For his part, the representative of Nineveh Governorate, Mahma Khalil, said that “reducing the governorates’ budget is an incorrect phenomenon, as the financial allocations are insufficient for the governorates, and what was allocated to Nineveh Governorate, 11.5 percent of the budget, is an injustice against the governorate and its people.”[/size]
[size=45]During his speech to the agency, Khalil stressed the importance of “increasing financial allocations to Nineveh Governorate to erase the devastation caused to it as a result of terrorist acts and military errors,” noting that “the governorate needs more than 60 trillion dinars, according to what former Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said.”[/size]
[size=45]For her part, the representative of Diwaniyah Governorate, Nour Nafie Al-Jalaihawi, told the agency, “The budget approved last year had Diwaniyah’s share of more than 320 billion, but in the budget schedule sent for this year it was 78 billion, and we do not know what the government relied on in this matter, but “We will not accept this matter to go away.”[/size]
[size=45]41 trillion dinars for the governorates[/size]
[size=45]On the other hand, the Ministry of Planning confirmed that more than (41) trillion dinars are the amount of financial sums available to the governorates in 2024, while indicating that the comparison between the regional development allocations to the governorates and the total investment spending of the Kurdistan Region is an incorrect comparison.[/size]
[size=45]The Ministry explained in a statement received by the agency, “The allocations of the Regional Development Program and the undisbursed amounts, of which the amount of the remaining funds for the year 2023, which are registered in deposits with the Ministry of Finance, amounted to (6,947,433) trillion dinars, in addition to the remainder of the food security funds registered in deposits with the governorates ( 5,824,403 trillion dinars, a total of (15,875) trillion dinars, and this amount is added to the size of the investment allocations for the governorates within the 2024 budget submitted to the House of Representatives, amounting to (3,103,158),” noting that “these allocations include the regional development program, petrodollars, and combating Poverty and loans.[/size]
[size=45]She added, “What was allocated to the projects of the federal ministries that are implemented in the governorates excluding the region amounted to (38.421) trillion dinars, and thus the total amounts available to the governorates reach (41.524) trillion dinars.”[/size]
[size=45]The ministry continued, “Based on the above, the comparison that appeared in the media, between the regional development allocations to the governorates, and the total investment spending of the Kurdistan Region, is an incorrect comparison. Rather, the comparison should have been made between the total investment spending of the governorates resulting from investment spending.” The ministries amounted to (41.524) trillion dinars, and what was allocated in the total investment spending for the region, which amounted to (4.875) trillion dinars, confirming the government’s commitment to the percentage allocated to the region, in all sections of spending.[/size]
[size=45]The Ministry pointed out that, “Based on the Tripartite Budget Law (2023-2025) and the Financial Management Law of 2019, the unspent amounts are recorded as deposits with the governorates or the Ministry of Finance, and local governments can spend them on projects in accordance with the mechanisms approved in this aspect, and these amounts are added to The financial allocations allocated to the governorates within the 2024 budget,” noting that “there are other amounts that will be allocated to the governorates, coming from the revenues of the border crossings, as most of the governorates enjoy this advantage, with the presence of land, air, or sea ports in them, as well as the financial allocations allocated to the funds in their various specialties, These are the funds for the reconstruction of Dhi Qar and Sinjar, the affected areas, and support for the poorest areas, amounting to about (2) trillion dinars.”[/size]
[size=45]She added, “The indicators proven during previous years indicate that the highest percentage of spending for the governorates did not exceed more than (4.2) trillion dinars, during the year 2022, as the spending was made according to the actual work peaks with no budget approved in that year, and therefore the presence of this bloc The large amount of cash available to the governorates, the spending units will not be able to spend more than 30% of it in the best of circumstances, according to the executive capabilities of the governorates.”[/size]
[size=45]The Ministry of Planning stated that “the directives of the Prime Minister, Muhammad Shiaa Al-Sudani, were always supportive of the efforts of local governments, enabling them to fulfill their financial obligations, complete their basic projects, and include new projects.”[/size]
[size=45]She pointed out that “the House of Representatives transferred (4.7) trillion dinars in last year’s 2023 budget from the Ministries of Electricity and Oil, to the governorate budgets in Table (E) as additional amounts to what the government allocated at the time, which was (5.2) trillion dinars, which... The government and Parliament were forced to borrow and set texts to add allocations to cover the transferred amounts, which increased the deficit resulting from this measure,” stressing at the same time that “the apparent differences in the Kurdistan Region’s allocations include the sovereign investment budget, including licensing rounds for Kurdistan amounting to (2.7) trillion dinars, which will not An act was taken to stop the export of oil from the region, in accordance with the decision of the Federal Court, and that the disbursement to the Kurdistan Region is conditional on the export of oil through (SOMO) and the region’s surrender of its oil imports to the Ministry of Finance.”[/size]
[size=45]Kurdistan share[/size]
[size=45]The Parliamentary Finance Committee confirmed last Wednesday that the Kurdistan Region’s share of the federal budget for the year 2024 has not changed from what was approved in last year’s budget.[/size]
[size=45]Committee member Nermin Maarouf said, “The Parliamentary Finance Committee has begun holding its meetings to discuss and study the schedules of the general budget law, and there will be intensive daily meetings until the final report is completed and the budget schedules are approved.”[/size]
[size=45]Maroufa explained, during her speech to the agency, that “the percentage of the Kurdistan Region in the 2024 budget is the same as that approved in the 2023 budget, which amounts to 12.67%, or about 20 trillion dinars.”[/size]
[size=45]The 2024 budget, according to what Prime Minister Muhammad Shiaa Al-Sudani announced last Sunday, is 211 trillion dinars, and employee salaries for the year 2024 amount to 62 trillion dinars, while the 2023 budget amounted to 199 trillion dinars and employee salaries were 59 trillion dinars.[/size]
[size=45]According to Al-Sudani, the revenues of the 2024 budget are estimated at “144 trillion and 336 billion dinars, while expenditures amount to 210 trillion and 936 billion dinars, while the deficit is 63 trillion and 599 billion dinars.”[/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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