Shafaq News- Baghdad
Iraq’s draft 2027 federal budget includes a provision to move contract and daily-paid workers across ministries and state institutions onto the permanent payroll, Parliamentary Finance Committee Chairman Uday Awad told Shafaq News on Sunday.
Awad said Finance Minister Faleh Al-Sari had informed the committee that the measure was included in the draft, which is expected to reach Parliament in October.
Finance Committee member Jamal Kocher said the government could submit the bill around October 15, or by the end of the month at the latest, although Parliament has yet to receive a final date.
Committee member Ikhlas Al-Dulaimi said the measure would apply to contract and daily-paid workers across government institutions, including those in the Kurdistan Region.
During a recent meeting of the Higher Committee for Budget Preparation, Al-Sari said the Finance Ministry had reviewed worker numbers, calculated the cost of moving them onto the permanent payroll and worked to secure the necessary allocations.
A technical delegation from the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Ministry of Finance and Economy also visited Baghdad earlier this month to discuss the Region’s financial entitlements and mechanisms for placing contract workers on the permanent payroll under the 2027 budget.
Iraq has operated without a fully enforceable federal budget for two years. Parliament approved a three-year budget law covering 2023, 2024 and 2025, but did not approve the 2025 spending schedules before the fiscal year ended. No federal budget law was passed for 2026, leaving the government to finance salaries and essential expenditures under the temporary one-twelfth spending mechanism.