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Iraqi Kurdistan's 2011 budget is more than
10 billion dollars
26.9.2010 |
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Observers believe that due to rampant "corruption"
in the country, large sums of budget are spent
"vaguely." Iraq is considered one of the most
corrupt countries in international reports on
corruption.
September
26, 2010
ERBIL-Hewlêr,
Kurdistan region 'Iraq', — The share of the federal
region of Iraqi Kurdistan from the 2011 budget of
Iraq will be as much as 12.484 trillion Iraqi Dinars
(ID) ($US 10.67 billion), according to Kurdistan’s
Deputy-Minister of Finance, Fazil Nabi.
In an exclusive interview with Rudaw, Nabi said that
the Kurdistan Regional Government is going to send
the project for 2011-budget to get its 17 percent
share from the Iraqi central government this week.
He added that a reform has been made in 2011’s
budget, decreasing the payment of politicians for
the ordinary employees of the state mainly the
retired ones.
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The budget of the
President of the republic, for instance, has been
decreased by 20 percent, and the budget of the
members of the parliament decreased by 10 percent.
Iraqi revenue mainly comes from oil. The country
ranks third after Saudi Arabia and Iran to have the
largest oil reserves.
But the country ranks fifth top corrupt country of
the world, according to last year’s Transparency
International report, which failed to make a
distinction between the Kurdish region and the Arab
Iraq.
Economic as well as political observers agree that
there is a high level of corruption here in Iraqi
Kurdistan as well. Though the region has an
anti-corruption committee to monitor spending in the
country, it has been largely ineffective.
The revenues made from oil, which is mainly located
in the Shiite provinces in the south and Kurdish
provinces in the north, are distributed based on the
size of the population making up cities and regions.
Kurdistan includes three provinces of Erbil,
Sulaimaniyah and Duhok with an estimated 4,000
people. It has 650,849,000 government employees,www.ekurd.netan
amount large enough to give a blow to the region’s
budget.
Kurdistan's budget for 2008 was over 6 billion
dollars, and over 9 billion dollars in 2009.
Iraq’s 2011 budget will be
sent to govt
A senior official at Iraq’s Ministry of Finance
stated on Monday that the proposed budget for 2011
will soon be sent to the cabinet for ratification as
a lawmaker said the current government cannot decide
on the budget under the country’s current
circumstances.
Speaking to AK news last Sunday, Fadhil Nabi, Iraq’s
deputy finance minister said that the ministry
finished preparing a report on the proposed budget
on Sept. 15.
The Council of Ministers will receive the report on
Monday and discuss it for three weeks before sending
it to the parliament for the final approval, he
added.
According to Nabi, the Iraqi Finance Ministry hopes
the anticipated budget will be reduced from 102
trillion and 500 billion Iraqi Dinars (IDs)
(approximately $88 billion) to 90 trillion (around
$76 billion).
He noted that in 2010, the budget was IDs 84
trillion, 17 percent of which was allocated for the
Kurdistan Region.
But, a Kurdish lawmaker in the Iraqi parliament,
Mohsen Saadoun told AKnews that the budget is
unlikely to be authorized while the new Iraqi
government is not formed.
"Only when the concerned committees in the
parliament are set up the budget can be discussed
and ratified," he noted.
Nearly seven months after parliamentary elections,
Iraq’s parliament has held only one session, on June
15. The meetings have been indefinitely suspended
until the blocs can resolve their disputes over the
distribution of the three top posts of the country.
Saadoun urged the political leaders to narrow their
differences and settle the disputes in the interest
of forming the government.
He warned that the delay in approving the budget
would harm the projects and the economic
infrastructure of Iraq.
Observers believe that due to rampant "corruption"
in the country, large sums of budget are spent
"vaguely." Iraq is considered one of the most
corrupt countries in international reports on
corruption.
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author or news agency, rudaw net | aknews com |
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