KRG Council of Ministers to discuss results of delegation visit to Baghdad

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Council of Ministers is set to convene on Wednesday to discuss the results of the government delegation visit to Baghdad, where they discussed the budgetary disputes with the federal government.

Prime Minister Masrour Barzani will chair the weekly session in the presence of his deputy Qubad Talabani in Erbil, according to a KRG statement.

In the first part of the meeting, the ministers will discuss the recent negotiations the government delegation had in Baghdad over the public salaries, which had been inconsistently paid due to the federal government’s failure to release the financial entitlements on time, according to Kurdish officials.

A senior KRG delegation on Saturday visited Baghdad and met with Iraqi officials to discuss the ongoing budgetary disputes.

In the absence of paying the Kurdish share from the federal budget, the Iraqi government has released several payments as loans to Erbil for it to be able to pay its civil servants.

Since its adoption in early June, KRG diplomats have alleged the budget has not been implemented properly by the government. Instead of paying the Kurdish share, they allege Baghdad has released allowances to Erbil to cover public salaries. The KRG has previously said the 500 billion dinars (over $384 million) provided by Baghdad thus far is not sufficient to pay the salaries.

Hailed as one of the country’s biggest budgets, the state expenditures were set at 198.91 trillion Iraqi dinars ($153 billion), with a deficit of more than 64 trillion dinars (over $48 billion).