KRG departments to fall under greater control of Iraq if proposal adopted

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A Kurdish member of the Iraqi parliament met with Iraq's Ministry of Interior (MOI) on Thursday to discuss a proposal to incorporate the work of various KRG departments into procedures and databases of the Iraqi federal government.

According to Kurdish MP and member of the Baghdad Parliament's Security and Defense Committee Hoshyar Abdullah, this would give the MOI some additional say in the hiring and firing of employees. 

Relevant departments that fall under the MOI's purview include those tasked with processing Iraqi citizenship and passports, residency, and housing in the region.

"The Federal Ministry of Interior is currently in the process of restoring the administrative relationship between it and federal departments in the Kurdistan Region," Abdullah said in a written statement.

The move is being billed as part of a trend in improving cooperation between Erbil and Baghdad, after months of strained relations following the Kurdistan Region's September independence referendum.

In recent months, some Kurdish politicians have expressed concern about Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi using his hardline responses to the referendum as a means to exert greater administrative control over the region, thus decreasing the semi-autonomous status it has enjoyed since the current federal government was approved in 2005.

"To ensure fairness in the distribution of staff, we must adopt the database created in 2010 by the Ministry of Interior, especially with regard to increasing staff," explained Abdullah, "but, with the need to take into account factors such as the strengths of employees and their livelihoods."

He added, "This process must be supervised directly by Baghdad and there should be no room left for managers who have been appointed for political reasons."