Lawmaker: Violations in PM Al-Sudani's Office allocations in 2024 budget

Shadaq News/ Mustafa Al-Mariani, a member of the parliamentary finance committee, identified violations in the allocations for Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani's office in the 2024 budget tables.

Al-Mariani told Shafaq News Agency, "We noticed multiple issues with the allocations for the Prime Minister's office. The first is the increase in allocations and the transfer of allocations under different categories to reduce their appearance in the tables, especially for funds like the Development Fund."

"The second violation, according to Al-Miriani, concerns the expenditure, particularly in the emergency budget," he added. "We have a report from the Financial Audit Bureau indicating that about 80% of the violations are related to the spending mechanisms of the emergency budget."

He criticized the spending of funds, noting, "Three billion dinars were spent on renovating the guest house…allocations for the Red Crescent, camps, and some projects have political and electoral implications."

He pointed out that "the emergency budget is intended for urgent events such as fires, floods, and disasters. However, what happened was additional spending by the Prime Minister's office with the knowledge of all political blocs."

"last year, the spending of the emergency budget reached 150 billion dinars, whereas this year it has not exceeded 50 billion dinars."

He explained that "the spending from the Development Fund was at 1% in 2023, and the government penalized the governorates that spent 30%."