Iraqi Kurdistan cabinet announces significant pay cuts to top government officials

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Iraqi Kurdistan cabinet announces significant pay cuts to top government officials Posted on December 22, 2015

 

Iraqi Kurdistan cabinet. Photo: KRG

 

HEWLÊR-Erbil, Kurdistan region ‘Iraq’,— The Cabinet of Ministers meeting in Erbil on Monday focused on the economic crisis in the Kurdistan region and adopted financial modifications to significantly reduce spending, develop a structure for monitoring spending activities, and plans to reduce and scrutinize some social services.

Kurdistan Minister of Peshmerga and Anfal Affairs, Mahmood Haji Salih, announced the decision to impose significant cuts to the salaries of the highest-level government officials, along with other major reforms.

Minister Salih gave additional explanation to NRT stating that the salary of the higher-level positions includes the three main presidential staff, which will be decreased by 50 percent; and a decrease for the General Directors by 30 percent. An 11-point plan was released in a statement from the Cabinet of Ministers meeting including details about the financial reforms. The KRG reforms reflect similar decreases passed by the Iraqi Parliament for the 2016 budget.

 

Meetings of the Cabinet of Ministers have been sporadic during a crucial time in the country. This meeting was the first held without the Ministers and Deputies from the Change Movement (Gorran). Two of the main political parties, Gorran and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), remain at odds, despite recent statements from Gorran about their desire to participate.

The current state of the Iraqi economy continues to suffer under both internal pressures, including the political struggles within the KRG and with the federal government, falling oil prices, and financial resources dedicated to the collective fight against the Islamic State (IS).

Erbil has consistently fallen behind on payments of salaries for civil servants and Peshmerga, creating the environment for mass protests in October 2015 throughout the Kurdistan region.

Sales of the American dollar and other foreign currencies by the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) showed a decrease on Monday (Dec. 21) at $151 million dollars, after hitting $161 million on Sunday (Dec. 20).

Abdul-Hussein al-Moussawi, Minister in Parliament, released a statement warning of the affects of the devaluation of the Iraqi Dinar, “the Central Bank’s decision to reduce the value of the Dinar by 1.3% will saddle the citizens and put pressure on their standard of living in particular the poor and low-income people.”

Copyright ©, respective author or news agency, nrttv.com

http://ekurd.net/kurdistan-announces-pay-cuts-govt-2015-12-22

 

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[tigergorzow]

SocalDinar Thanks, KRG is not taking a pay cut unless they receive something in return. We all know politicians are greedy. Let's hope the RV is in the calculations for all.

Keeping the faith!!

GO RV!!

[calkid11]

Thank you

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THANKS

[SocalDinar]

Iraq's Kurdistan region takes small step toward economic reform

ERBIL, Iraq

 

The government of Iraq's Kurdistan region has unveiled spending cuts in a tentative step toward tackling an economic crisis that officials say poses a greater threat than Islamic State.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which is three months in arrears and deeply in debt, has been struggling since early 2014 when the Baghdad government slashed its funding, halting a boom fueled by Iraq's growing oil revenues.

Then Islamic State overran a third of Iraq, scaring off foreign investors and driving more than one million refugees into Kurdistan.

Unveiled earlier this week, the spending cuts will include cutting allowances of ministers and other officials by as much as 50 percent, and eliminating perks such as paying the rent and electricity bills of senior civil servants.

But two Kurdish lawmakers, Farsat Sofi and Goran Azad, who presented a report on the economy to the cabinet earlier this month, said the reforms, which are due to come into force at the start of next year, needed to go much further.

"Those decisions should have been made sooner and they concern reducing expenses rather than real economic and administrative reform," said lawmaker Goran Azad. "The government has only two options: either to reform or cease to function."

Both Sofi and Azad said the amount saved through the measures would be negligible compared to the scale of the problem, and expected more changes to be introduced in the coming weeks.

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The lawmakers said the KRG has now racked up roughly $18 billion in debt and is unable to meet a bloated public payroll costing 870 billion dinar ($793 million) per month, including the salaries of its armed forces, the peshmerga.

The peshmerga have emerged as a key component of the U.S.-led coalition's strategy to "degrade and destroy" Islamic State, driving the insurgents back in northern Iraq with the help of airstrikes.

Speaking of the multiple challenges facing Kurdistan, Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani said earlier this month: "But of all of these crises, the one that poses the most significant threat to the long-term future of Kurdistan ...  is the economic crisis."

The autonomous region ran a budget deficit of nearly 8 trillion dinars in 2014, Talabani said, predicting a smaller but still considerable shortfall of 2–3 trillion dinars this year.

Dependent on oil revenue, Kurdistan has increased independent exports to more than 600,000 barrels per day in an effort to cover the gap, but the price of crude has fallen below $40 per barrel, on top of which the KRG sells at a discount.

Talabani also said the first priority was to "restructure" the region's salary and pensions scheme, which currently consumes 70 percent of Kurdistan's entire budget. The second and third priorities are to reduce subsidies for petroleum products and electricity sector, he said.

Lawmaker Sofi said the KRG should also root out thousands of "ghost employees" -- people who are on the public payroll but do not go to work.

The new measures will be a major test for the KRG as true reform will have to take on corruption, Azad said.

"It won't be easy because reform harms the interests of a group of people in positions of power and influence, so they will create obstacles," Azad said. "If they don't reform, it will harm their own interests and those of the nation."

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-kurds-economy-idUSKBN0U61IL20151223

 

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Parliamentary Finance: The government began to cut officials' salaries to 30%

Political

 Since 12/24/2015 13:05 pm (Baghdad time)

Special - scales News

He said the parliamentary finance committee member Ahmed Sarhan, Thursday, that the federal government lowered the senior officials' salaries and grades to percentages reached for 30%.

Ahmed said L / scales News /, that "the central government reduced its officials and senior grades salaries by 45% and 40% and 30% reduction was applied to him now."

He added, "The Kurdistan region is going through an economic and financial crisis and the central government does not pay its employees 'salaries, which led to non-functioning of the province in the footsteps of the federal government through its employees' salaries deducted emphasis was placed on the salaries of the higher grades."

He pointed out, "The federal government staff salaries monthly ongoing unlike Kurdistan staff who have not been paid because of non-payment of dues."

He pointed out, "The central Aaovernmh did not fail to confront the financial crisis, attributing the cause to it is going to be loans to bridge the shortfall in the 2016 budget" .anthy 29 quarters e 

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