The methods by which revenues are collected “needs to be changed. This is the main reason why salaries are not being paid on time,” Ziyad Jabbar told Rudaw on Wednesday.
Exchanging dollars to dinars is one of the main problems, he said. “As of yesterday $50 million that was collected for salaries were not exchanged at RT bank. As of the 4th of this month, revenues from Ibrahim Khalil [border crossing] to be spent on salaries were in dollars and not exchanged to dinars.”
Criticizing the government’s current system of collecting its revenues on a monthly basis, Jabbar said the KRG should “find a mechanism where revenues are sent to the financial ministry daily and prepared, not at the end of the month a day before distributing salaries. Unfortunately salaries get delayed for up to 15 days.”
After months of failing to pay its employees on time or in full, the KRG announced it would pay salaries on the 25th of every month, but two months later, “there have been issues of salary delays,” said Jabbar.
The KRG has had financial problems for years because of endemic corruption, budget disputes with Baghdad, low oil prices, the war with the Islamic State (ISIS), and the pandemic. It first introduced austerity measures in 2016, slashing salaries of its civil servants. Last year, payments from Baghdad covered roughly a third of the KRG’s payroll.
This year, the Kurdistan Region is yet to receive its share of the federal budget. In January, Erbil decided to cut salaries, meaning government employees who make more than 300,000 Iraqi dinars (approximately $200) per month see their paychecks cut by 21 percent.
Members of the Kurdistan parliament have called the salary cuts “illegal.” Lawmakers discussed the problem in a long-called-for parliamentary session on June 28. The session lasted about 18 hours and brought key ministers into answer questions. But MPs left the meeting disappointed, saying it was “unproductive.”
On Tuesday, MPs tried and failed to sidetrack the sessions into salary talks. At least 16 lawmakers left the hall in protest.
“Fifty-seven parliamentarians have called for abolishing the pay cuts before and today in the session, at which the government was present, we asked to put the MPs demand to a vote,” Abdulstar Majid, an MP from Kurdistan Justice Group, said in a press conference.
“Unfortunately, the speaker of parliament has been ignoring the memos we have put forward. That’s why I think the parliament has become subordinate to the government,” he said. “We all think – according to data – the revenues in the Kurdistan Region will be more than enough for salaries and on time.”
The 16 MPs who were walked out were later prevented from re-entering, a move they said violated parliamentary rules.
“The leadership not allowing the parliamentarians to enter Kurdistan’s parliament session is, we think, a violation of parliament’s Rules of Procedure,” Ashna Abdullah, a Gorran MP said in a press conference.
According to parliamentary rules, the speaker can oust a member for using improper language after they have been given three warnings.
At least ten guards were stationed in front of the legislature to prevent MPs from entering, according to videos published on MPs’ social media accounts. Abdullah called the move “unacceptable.”
Hemin Hawrami, deputy speaker of parliament and member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), in an interview with Rudaw on Tuesday, said MPs are using the salary issue to campaign for the upcoming Iraqi elections or to humiliate their counterparts.
Legislation must go through a process, he said, “you can’t use a session for election campaigning or for putting each other to shame.”
After the June 28 session, Finance Minister Awat Sheikh Janab, a member of Gorran, said he would boycott future cabinet ministers after he was blamed for the salary cuts.
Previous parliamentary discussions on the salary issue have sparked accusations of blame between the KDP and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which has its stronghold in Sulaimani.
Head of the finance committee Jabbar said accusing Sulaimani of failing to send its revenues to the KRG is unfair.
“If we want to put all the blame of salary delays on Sulaimani not returning revenues, that’s not true, because most of the money provided for salaries is from oil money. Oil money is not in Sulaimani,” he said.
Jabbar’s committee will send a report detailing the MPs concerns to the cabinet. “The aim is to abolish the salary cuts with this report,” he said, but he doubts they will act on the report.
“We all have said what the government has done is illegal,” Jabbar said. “If the government has done something illegal, even if we make a decision, they will not implement it.”
Oil prices have increased and the KRG reports higher customs revenues so “they should end the salary cuts,” he said.
Additional reporting by Sangar Abdulrahman, Shaho Amin, Bahroz Faraidoon
