NGO slams Kurdistan MPs for drawing salaries without parliament sitting

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Four months after they were sworn in, Kurdistan Region’s parliamentarians have not returned to the legislature, a researcher told Rudaw on Thursday, criticizing the lawmakers for receiving more than two billion dinars in salary payments but not doing any work.

“We have 19 committees [in the parliament]. In the span of three months each committee should have a minimum of six meetings per month, multiply that by 19 and they should have held 114 meetings. Not only have they failed to hold a single session, but they have not formed the committees,” Sarwar Abdulrahman, head of PAY Foundation for Education and Development, told Rudaw’s Nwenar Fatih.

“The only thing that has changed in the Region’s parliament, frankly, is that members of parliament have been provided salaries, period. There is nothing more, meaning their salaries are illegal,” he added.

The PAY Foundation for Education and Development is a Kurdistan-based NGO that monitors parliamentary performance, governance, and transparency. It publishes reports on legislative activity and advocates for accountability.

After the October 20 election, parliament held its first session on December 2. It was chaired by the oldest member and the MPs took the parliamentary oath. The legislature did not elect a speaker, deputy speaker, or secretary. No other sessions have been scheduled.

Abdulrahman said that the initial swearing-in session is legally void as the parliament is still lacking a presidency. He also noted that any decisions made, salary allocations, and other privileges are also legally null.

Under Article 51 of Parliament’s internal rules, members must follow a set weekly schedule: Sundays are for meeting with constituents, Mondays for committee meetings, Tuesdays and Wednesdays for parliamentary sessions, and Thursdays for follow-ups with the government, Abdulrahman explained.

“Fridays and Saturdays are officially designated as weekends. However, to them, every day of the week has been a weekend in the past four months,” he said.

He said that the lawmakers should not have accepted their salaries and their first act in office should not be one of corruption and illegality.

Out of 100 members, 97 have taken their oaths.

PAY recently published a report on the Kurdistan Parliament's current term that also provided salary breakdowns. Each member has a base monthly salary of 8.2 million IQD, but because committees have not been formed, they do not receive the additional 500,000 IQD committee bonus. This brings their actual salary to 7.7 million IQD per month. In three months, each parliamentarian received approximately 23.1 million IQD, despite the lack of legislative activity.

As of March, total spending on salaries has reached 2.24 billion IQD, according to PAY.

Each member has also been assigned three bodyguards and provided with a house or apartment.

No single party won a majority in the election, meaning a governing coalition will need to be formed, as has traditionally been the case. The two ruling parties - the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) - who came first and second in the vote, have made progress in government formation talks. The distribution of posts in the government will be announced after the Eid al-Fitr holiday, a PUK spokesperson said late last month.

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