Iraq’s deputy speaker demands suspension of finance committee

ERBIL Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s deputy parliament speaker on Saturday called for the suspension of the parliament’s finance committee after it made controversial amendments to the budget bill.

Deputy speaker Shakhawan Abdullah said the finance committee breached parliamentary rules that limit the number of committee members to 21.

“From the meetings of the [finance] committee, it turned out that the attending members were 24, and that is a clear breach of the aforementioned article,” read his letter, which adds that parliamentary rules dictate the suspension of the committee until the error is rectified.

The finance committee on Thursday amended two articles of the budget bill that pertain to the Kurdistan Region. The changes drew the ire of Kurdish leaders and led to the postponement of a vote on the bill.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) slammed the last-minute amendments as “unconstitutional” and in violation of previous agreements between Erbil and Baghdad.

Responding to Abdullah’s letter in a tweet, Hussain Mouanes, a member of the finance committee and the leader of the Rights (Huquq) movement, said, “The texts that were agreed upon by the members of the finance committee are irreversible, and no one can obstruct it as long as we exist.”

The amendments under dispute relate to establishing Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO) as the responsible party for selling Kurdistan Region’s oil, decreasing the time for Erbil to pay off its debts from seven years to five, creating an account for Kurdistan Region's oil revenues in the Iraqi central bank, and granting the finance minister the power to authorize the Region's prime minister to make withdrawals from that account. In the previous draft, that power was held by the Iraqi prime minister, Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani.

Parliament was scheduled to vote on the budget bill on Saturday, but it has been indefinitely postponed.

The 2023 budget includes a record $152 billion in spending, 12.6 percent of which is allocated for the Kurdistan Region.

Financial matters are a frequent source of tension between Erbil and Baghdad. Erbil says it regularly does not receive its entitled share of federal funds and Baghdad opposes Kurdistan Region’s independent oil sales.