Kurdish MPs pressure Abadi to listen to IMF’s advice for 2018 budget
“The financial reputation of Iraq will break in the eyes of the World Bank if the government in Baghdad does not agree with this request,” Masoud Haider, a Kurdish MP on the finance committee, told Rudaw.
Kurdish MPs and heads of factions within the Iraqi parliament met with Abadi in two meetings last week, but no agreement was reached in regards to the Kurdistan Regional Government’s budget share in 2018.
“We proposed 10 ways to Abadi to send salaries, but Abadi said he couldn’t until the auditing process is finished,” Muthana Amin, the head of the Islamic Union faction said.
Abadi has made no promises regarding the budget, airports, according to another Kurdish MP.
“We asked Abadi for a timeline to pay salaries to the Kurdistan Region’s employees and to reopen international airports of Erbil and Sulaimani, but he said he couldn’t promise,” said Arafat Karam, the head of KDP faction in Iraqi parliament.
Karam added: “Abadi didn’t have an answer when I asked him how they would deal with the request made by the IMF.”
An IMF representative told Rudaw in December that they have communicated to the federal government that the 6.6 trillion [Iraqi dinars] (about $5.56 billion) that are currently in the 2018 draft budget do not suffice in our view to cover the needs of the KRG.
“If Baghdad doesn’t commit to the request made by the IMF, they would not approve Iraq’s budget and Iraq’s financial reputation will break in such a way big companies and banks cannot deal with Baghdad,” claimed Masoud Haider, a Gorran MP on Iraqi parliament’s finance committee.
Abadi posited last week whether it would be in the interest of the country to take loans and “be riddled with paying interest.”
“Iraq has asked the IMF for a loan of $7 billion for 2018. The Iraqi government receives international loans annually. If Iraq does not commit to the demands of the World Bank, the price for Iraq will be heavy,” Haider added.
Iraq’s budget for 2018 is about $88 billion. But the Kurdistan Region’s 17 percent share of the budget has not been approved yet due to political disagreements. Baghdad has determined 12.6 percent as Erbil’s share of the budget, which the Kurdish politicians have refused.
Kurdish MPs were united and unanimous on the question of budget with the Iraqi premier.
“Whenever the question of salaries was being raised, Abadi was immediately taking out his calculator and saying it was impossible,” Amin, of the KIU added.
In the meeting with Kurdish MPs, Abadi reiterated that the KRG’s payroll is not clean and has ghost employees in it and should be cleared of irregular salary receivers before the budget is sent.
“We asked Abadi whether the Hashd al-Shaabi and Iraqi ministries payrolls were clean. I said this to Abadi: after you became prime minister of Iraq, when you first came to the parliament, you said there were 50,000 ghost employees in the ministry of defense alone. I then asked him to send Kurdistan salaries and then do the calculations,” Amin explained.
Following the meeting with Kurdish parties, Abadi stated they discussed ways to approve the 2018 budget bill, the importance of speeding up audits ahead of paying the salaries of KRG employees while ensuring transparency, emphasizing the importance of fighting corruption.
“Abadi has some words as if they are recorded on a CD which he repeats to anyone visiting him,” the KDP’s Karam said.
Previous Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is seen as a likely challenger for Abadi as Iraq holds general elections in May.
“Abadi is no longer existent in our dictionary. Kurdish blood was shed during his reign. At least Kurdish blood was not shed during al-Maliki,” Karam claimed.
The Iraqi government transferred $210 million to the office of the Central Bank of Iraq in Erbil on January 29, but the KRG has said it does not know what the funds are directly for.