Kurdistan has made 'every effort' to limit spending; Baghdad must release funds: KRG

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani announced on Tuesday that his government continues to actively reduce unnecessary expenditures, demanding that federal authorities in Baghdad release funds allotted to the autonomous region that have been frozen for months.

Barzani’s remarks came during a meeting of the region's Supreme Economic Council, according to a Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) statement later that day. 

It repeated past claims that the KRG has made "every effort" to limit its spending, most recently by eliminating false or duplicate names on salary rosters collected by others, often known as "ghost employees," a common form of corruption in Iraq.

Read More: KRG cuts over 10,000 illegal salaries amid ongoing reform process: finance ministry

Barzani stressed the need to prepare a sound and transparent yearly budget for the region that takes all circumstances into account and which "depends on the language of numbers, oil, and non-oil revenues, and actual expenditures, in addition to the financial deficit in light of the current financial situation in the Kurdistan Region."

Any budget, he said, would have to rely primarily on the autonomous region’s own revenue instead of the federal government.

After a draft budget is completed and approved by the regional cabinet, it would be referred to the Kurdistan Region's Parliament for a vote.

Barzani said that the passage of such a budget law "would be another step in enhancing the transparency of public finances in the region."

He also stressed the importance of resolving multiple additional outstanding disputes with Baghdad, arguing, “The regional government has fulfilled all its constitutional duties and therefore the federal authorities must secure the financial rights and dues for the region within the framework of the federal budget project for 2021.”

Editing by John J. Catherine