MP: 10+ bn$ of outstanding payments to Kurdistan employees since 2014
Shafaq News / MP of the Change Bloc (Gorran), Ghaleb Muhammad, revealed on Sunday that more than $ 10 billion of salaries due to employees of Kurdistan Region have not been paid since 2014, calling for distancing the employee salaries from the disputes between the governments of Baghdad and Erbil. Muhammad told Shafaq News agency that the employees of the region did not receive the salaries of 12 months since 2014.
The remaining 30 salaries handed over to the employees during the same period, were always deducted and incomplete due to the financial crisis in Kurdistan and the failure to allocate funds by the federal government.
The MP called for keeping the salaries of the employees of the region above the fray of political disputes between Baghdad and Erbil and avoid using it as leverage by any party. Mohamed added, "the salaries of the employees are a legal and living entitlement and a national right that cannot be violated.
The citizens of the region are looking for decisive solutions to obtain their sustenance."
The previous Iraqi government headed by Adel Abdul-Mahdi decided last April to cut the salaries of state employees in Kurdistan region after accusing the region of not committing to an agreement to deliver 250 thousand barrels of oil per day to the company "Sumo" owned by Baghdad, which was denied by the government of Erbil.
The government of Mustafa Al-Kadhimi agreed last May to pay one month's salaries to the region’s employees, while he pledged to release them regularly if Baghdad and Erbil reach an agreement over the oil file and the region’s share of the federal budget.
Iraq's oil exports constitute 98% of foreign currency influx to the country, where oil constitutes 45% of the gross domestic product and 93% of the general budget's income.
