ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A delegation of Iraqi auditors team is due to start evaluating the payroll of the KRG ministry of agriculture and water resources this week.
"Three members from Baghdad committee for auditing the payroll of the Kurdistan Region employees will visit the ministry of agriculture and water resources," Khalis Ahmed, director-general of the department (Diwan) at the KRG's agriculture ministry, told Rudaw.
Iraq's federal government controls the regional government's budget share. To that effect, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has said KRG ministries will be audited department-by-department and then paid accordingly.
"The committee will visit the ministry for auditing purposes, and we have made complete preparations and informed all the offices about this," added Ahmed.
The KRG has had to slash salaries of its employees due to the financial strains put on it by Baghdad cutting its budget and decreasing oil prices in addition to other issues.
Wheat is a staple crop in the Kurdistan Region, which Baghdad often purchases from Kurdish farmers. But officials within the ministry have expressed concern over drought. They estimate "nearly 40 percent" of the wheat planted this growing season has been lost.
Baghdad sent at least 10 committees in late January to Erbil, which audited the health and education ministries — the two ministries with the largest number of employees besides the Ministry of Peshmerga.
Ghost employees and people receiving double salaries are considered the biggest issue for the KRG. The KRG’s Council of Ministers has introduced a reform bill to eliminate ghost employees and those receiving double salaries.
The KRG last year created a digital list of its employees known as the biometric list as a part of the reforms.
KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani and Abadi have met twice over the past few weeks, in Baghdad and at Davos — the first such meetings since the referendum and Kirkuk incursion when the KRG lost nearly half of its oil revenues.
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