KRG signs contract with international auditing company

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on Wednesday signed an agreement with an international company to audit oil and gas revenues in the Kurdistan Region.

According to a statement released on the KRG website, the contract was signed with US-based international auditing company Deloitte to audit the Kurdistan Region’s oil production, sales, and revenues.

The decision is in lieu of the KRG’s efforts to achieve more transparency in the government.

Earlier in the year, the President of the Kurdistan Region Masoud Barzani stated he would bring to justice anyone involved in corruption.

After signing the agreement, the KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani discussed the importance of the contract in a statement.

“This is a serious and important step by the KRG to be more transparent in the oil and gas revenues and expenditures, and it is a sign of the KRG’s commitment to reform,” the KRG statement read.

“The commencement of the Deloitte auditing independent company in the Kurdistan Region will lead to the provision of more transparency,” the PM added.

“[The agreement] further enhances transparent, independent, and scientific auditing for oil and gas revenues and expenditure from the start of the process of oil extraction and from now on,” PM Barzani continued.

Barzani said the KRG would reveal the auditing reports prepared by the international company in accordance with implemented standards of stakeholders and the people of Kurdistan.

In mid-2016, in the midst of a two-year economic crisis which resulted in deteriorating nominal of financial assets, the KRG’s Ministry of Planning and World Bank jointly launched their three-year roadmap of reform in the Region. 

Barzani said that the KRG will reveal the auditing reports prepared by the international company in accordance to the implemented standards to the stakeholders and the people of Kurdistan.

In mid-2016, in the midst of a two-year economic crisis which resulted in deteriorating nominal of financial assets, the KRG’s Ministry of Planning and World Bank jointly launched their three-year road-map to reform in the Kurdistan Region. 

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany