Shafaq News – Dhi Qar

Delays in approving Iraq’s federal budget tables and releasing financial allocations have pushed Dhi Qar’s health sector into a “severe” funding crisis.

Speaking with Shafaq News on Wednesday, Ahmed Al-Khafaji, head of the Health Committee in the Dhi Qar Provincial Council, confirmed that the province already faces shortages of medicines and medical supplies across several public hospitals and clinics. He urged the government to accelerate the release of allocated funds, warning that continued delays would deepen the shortages.

Meanwhile, council member Abdul-Baqi Al-Omari criticized the current administration’s financial management. He explained to our agency that the former local government handed over 171 planned and implementation-ready projects, along with four years of accumulated social benefit funds and a comprehensive plan to revive the southern marshlands.

“The responsibility should be handed over as it was received—secure and coherent,” Al-Omari added, arguing that many local departments are now struggling to meet their financial obligations after previously maintaining surpluses.

In April, caretaker Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani launched three major infrastructure projects in Dhi Qar valued at about $1.67 billion, targeting electricity generation, healthcare, and urban services. Despite these initiatives, Deputy Governor Hassan Daadoush has recently revealed that a severe funding bottleneck threatens to halt more than 120 reconstruction and infrastructure projects in the province, adding that the local government has intensified follow-ups with the Ministries of Planning and Finance to secure overdue payments to contractors.

Dhi Qar’s difficulties mirror a broader fiscal squeeze across Iraq. The country is approaching 2026 without finalized budget tables for 2025, while the fiscal deficit expanded to 17.7 trillion dinars ($13.5 billion) by September, as rising expenditures, stagnant revenues, and an unresolved political impasse tightened spending nationwide.

Read more: Deficit soars, projects freeze: Iraq heads into 2026 with NO BUDGET

Al-Sudani has maintained that the three-year federal budget framework introduced by his government provides “stability in expenditure,” while cautioning that future budgets will continue to face structural pressures linked to the size of the state and long-standing financial obligations.