Iraq to continue paying KRG salaries: Finance minister

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The federal government will continue to pay the salaries of Kurdistan Region’s civil servants, Iraq’s finance minister said on Friday. 

“We will continue to send the salaries to the Kurdistan Region as per the federal court ruling,” Taif Sami told Rudaw’s Diyar Kurda in Washington on Friday, referring to a February ruling by the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court that ordered the federal government to pay the salaries of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) civil servants and for Erbil to hand over all oil and non-oil revenues to Baghdad.

Baghdad has paid the salaries of the Kurdistan Region’s public employees for the first three months of this year.

The minister said that Baghdad will also send the salaries for the security forces for the month of April. 

The KRG did not pay its civil servants for the last three months of 2023, but Sami said that the federal government is not responsible for these missed months. 

The KRG has failed to pay the salaries of its civil servants on time and in full for a decade due to a financial crisis that worsened when its oil exports were halted a year ago following a court ruling on a dispute between Iraq and Turkey over Kurdistan Region’s independent oil sales.

Erbil has repeatedly accused Baghdad of not making regular payments of its share of federal funds. Last June, Iraq passed a three-year budget of which the Kurdistan Region's share is 12.6 percent. Baghdad has claimed it has fully implemented its financial obligations to the KRG, including through loans to assist the Region to cover its payroll.

A spokesperson for the Iraqi government on Tuesday said that Baghdad is “optimistic” about the restart of Kurdistan Region’s oil exports, which is a priority for the federal government.

Before the halt, around 400,000 barrels a day were being exported by Erbil, in addition to some 75,000 barrels of Kirkuk’s oil.