Nineveh Council: Baghdad more centralized than before

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – On Tuesday, the head of Nineveh Provincial Council (NPC) in northern Iraq stated that the committee has not received its 2015 budget from the Federal Government of Iraq.

The Islamic State (IS) occupied large swaths of territory in northern Iraq in June 2014. Since then, Kurdish Peshmerga forces with the aerial support of the international coalition have pushed the extremists back, liberating many villages and towns.

“We haven’t received any budget or financial assistance from the Iraqi [federal] government for 2015,” the head of NPC, Bashar Kiki, told Kurdistan24.

“Peshmerga forces have cleared many areas of Nineveh from IS,” Kiki added. “We want to rebuild those areas to help people, who are currently displaced and reside in the Kurdistan Region, return to their homes.”

He believes that the federal government of Iraq has ignored Nineveh Province. “We are not asking for any additional financial support from Baghdad. All we want is our constitutional share of the budget, not more,” Kiki stated.

The NPC head accused Baghdad and government ministers of making excuses to delay the process of delivering their share of the national budget.

The Kurdistan Region is home to almost two million refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) many of whom are from Nineveh and southern provinces of Iraq.

Kiki stated that the laws and constitution that Iraq possess are meaningless without implementation. “We shouldn’t go backward in terms of the governing system. Why do we have a constitution, laws, and provincial administrations if they are not practiced in reality,” he questioned.

The head of NPC also emphasized that Baghdad dictates almost all decisions. “I confidently say that the sense of centralization in Baghdad is much more than before [under Saddam Hussein’s rule],” Kiki said, comparing the current federal government with the former dictatorship.

He claims that the Baghdad government places all financial decisions in the hands of ministers while ignoring the provincial administrations.

“The main victims of these issues are the people of Iraq,” Kiki concluded.

President of the Kurdistan Region Masoud Barzani said recently that there is no real partnership in the Federal Government of Iraq, stating that Baghdad does not want to share power.

Reporting by Mewan Dolamari
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany and Ava Homa