The Kurdistan Regional Government and the Government of Iraq have recently agreed to cooperate to audit and verify the list of Kurdish employees, beginning with the two sectors which have the largest number of people on their payroll — not counting the Peshmerga ministry.
A 16-member team from the Iraqi government will form sub-groups of four who will then visit the KRG’s health and education offices to audit the state employees based on “samples” which will be collected.
The recommendation was put forth by the Kurdish side, a demand the Iraqi side has agreed to present to the Iraqi government.
The Kurdish team also demanded that the auditing process to begin at the earliest time and for the Iraqi government to use the KRG’s digitally-recorded list of employees.
A delegation from KRG’s ministries of health and education met with their Iraqi counterparts on Wednesday to discuss salaries of their employees, the second such visit in two weeks.
The Kurdish delegation was composed of five individuals, including financial advisors from the two ministries and one from the Council of Ministers.
“They [Iraqis] notified us that the second round of meetings will take place on Wednesday at 9 a.m. at Iraq’s Ministry of Planning,” Dr. Vian Mohammed, the director general of planning in the Ministry of Health, told Rudaw earlier in the day.
The Iraqi delegation was to be led by Mahdi Alaq, the secretary general of the Iraqi Council of Ministers.
The two teams last met in late-December 2017.
The Iraqi government has formed a financial auditing team composed of ten committees that will visit the Kurdistan Region and meet KRG officials to audit the list of employees at different times.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has said that employees in the KRG will be audited and then paid group-by-group, beginning with the most essential civil servants such as teachers, health workers, infrastructure employees, and some security forces.
“We have clear and precise lists,” Mohammed from the KRG added, “employees have their titles and main salaries in the lists registered.”
Both the ministries of health and education have the largest number of employees in the Kurdistan Region. The Ministry of Health has about 51,000 employees while the Ministry of Education has about 168,000, according to the KRG.
Baghdad paid the Kurdistan Region’s dam workers their salaries in late-December 2017. They number just over 400 people.
Abadi told reporters in his weekly press conference on Tuesday that Baghdad has reached the final stage in paying the salaries of KRG’s employees and negotiations are going well.
The KRG has been unable to pay full salaries of all its employees since 2014 after the Iraqi government cut the Region’s budget share.
After the loss of Kirkuk in October 2017, the KRG says revenues were halved.
Abadi has reiterated on more than one occasion that he is committed to paying KRG’s salaries and that he is not making false promises.
Discussions on Monday between Iraq’s oil ministry and the KRG may set the ground for an oil-for-budget agreement, Amanj Rahim, secretary of the KRG Council of Ministers, explained in a statement on his Facebook page.
Erbil has said they are ready to reach an agreement with Baghdad regarding oil exports in return for 17 percent of the federal budget.
Abadi has insisted that he will not allow Erbil to receive 17 percent of the budget, arguing that the Kurdistan Region’s share should be based on its population size.
Kurdish officials reported that the Iraqi government has suggested allocating 12.6 percent to the Kurdistan Region, an amount the International Monetary Fund says is not enough to cover the KRG's expenses.
.jpeg&w=3840&q=75)
