ERBIL, Kurdistan Region-- The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) announced a new office on Tuesday to manage and repay the loans that the KRG has borrowed over the past years in order to offset its colossal budget deficits of 2014 and 2015. The new directorate called The Debt Management Office will continuously collect and store detailed information about the status of KRG loans which by some estimates is around $20 billion. “The office is established to record information about the loans that the KRG has made from domestic banks or from international credit institutions,” said KRG Secretary Amanj Rahim. Rahim said the office will also manage and store information about the outstanding compensation that the government is owed to companies and investors as well as the oil revenue deposits. As part of the austerity measures, the KRG has reduced the salaries of most employees in the country since 2016. The KRG has said it will pay back the reduced amount to employees when the recovery plan is completed. Rahim said part of the commitment of this new office is to oversee the wage reduction and the ways it can compensate the employees as the economy peaks. “The new office will be associated with the Council of Ministers but it will soon be moved to the Ministry of Finances,” said Mawlood Bawmrad, KRG Minister of Transportation and Communications.
