Salaries for Kurdistan region employees fully funded for 2024: FM

Kurdistan has not delivered the region’s oil and non-oil revenues to Baghdad

BAGHDAD,— Iraq’s Finance Minister, Taif Sami, announced on Saturday that full funding has been sent for the salaries of employees in the Kurdistan Region for 2024, while confirming that salaries for 2025 are also secured.

The statement came during a meeting hosted by the Parliamentary Finance Committee, which gathered to review the country’s financial situation and discuss key obstacles in funding, expenditures, and resource allocation.

According to a committee statement, Sami assured lawmakers that the Ministry of Finance has fully allocated the necessary funds for the salaries of Kurdistan Region employees in 2024.

“The ministry is not responsible for the non-disbursement of these funds to eligible employees,” Sami said, adding that “the salaries for 2025 are entirely secured as well.”

Sami highlighted a significant challenge: the federal government has paid over 11 trillion Iraqi dinars in salaries for employees in the Kurdistan Region, while authorities in Erbil have failed to deliver the region’s oil and non-oil revenues to Baghdad. This, she said, has hindered funding for other provinces across the country.

“The Kurdistan Region’s non-oil revenues exceeded 4 trillion dinars, yet only 320 billion dinars have been transferred to the federal government,” Sami said, citing a review balance report.

Addressing a proposed amendment to Article 12 of the Budget Law, Sami described the issue as technical and noted that the ministry has yet to evaluate it.

She linked the payment of dues to oil companies operating in Kurdistan to the submission of detailed reports on production, transportation, and internal consumption costs. These details, she explained, would be incorporated into the 2025 budget, alongside the requirement for the region to hand over all oil and non-oil revenues.

The Parliamentary Finance Committee announced plans to form a subcommittee to investigate outstanding financial issues between Baghdad and Erbil for 2024 and 2025.

Additionally, directors-general from the Budget and Accounting Departments at the Ministry of Finance are scheduled to meet with the committee on Monday to discuss broader fiscal policy matters.

Sami reiterated, “The Ministry of Finance has done its part in fully funding the region’s salaries for 2024. Any delay in disbursement lies outside the ministry’s jurisdiction.”

This ongoing financial tension underscores the complex relationship between Iraq’s federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), as both sides navigate revenue-sharing and budgetary agreements critical to the nation’s fiscal stability.

Since 2014, the people of the Kurdistan Region have suffered from delayed or unpaid salaries, a situation exacerbated by allegations of corruption against the region’s ruling parties.

Despite earning billions of dollars annually from oil exports through Turkey, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), led by the Barzani family and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), has failed to consistently pay public servants.

Iraqi Kurdistan is widely regarded as one of the most corrupt regions in Iraq. Watchdog organizations, Kurdish lawmakers, and leaked documents have reported that billions of dollars in oil revenues are unaccounted for.

Even after halting oil exports by pipeline via Turkey, authorities in the region have allegedly continued to sell oil illegally, smuggling it to Iran, Afghanistan, and Turkey through trucks, according to sources.

For decades, the Barzani clan, which dominates the KDP, has been accused of mismanaging the region’s wealth.

The KRG has faced criticism for its lack of transparency in disclosing oil revenues, with observers and Kurdish politicians alleging that the government conceals financial details from both the public and the regional parliament.

The allegations of corruption and lack of accountability have fueled frustration among the region’s citizens, who continue to demand answers about how their resources are being managed amid ongoing economic struggles.