KRG Electricity Minister resigns

The KRG’s failure to implement specific conditions initially agreed upon is the reason for his resignation.

Sangar Ali 2016/01/04 14:48

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (K24) – The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Minister of Electricity, Salahaddin Babakr, resigned from his position on Sunday. He stated that the KRG’s failure to implement specific conditions initially agreed upon is the reason for his resignation.

In a press conference on Sunday, Babakr, who is a member of the Kurdistan Islamic Union (Yekgirtu), announced his resignation as the KRG Electricity Minister, stating that, "the KRG is not providing the necessary amount of fuel to the electricity stations."

"Therefore, we can't serve people as the electricity issues are raising in the Kurdistan Region...If we can't serve people, resignation is the best solution," he added.

Yekgirtu Deputy Leader Mohammed Ahmed stated in the press conference that KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani is aware of the electricity issues in the Kurdistan Region as they had met Barzani before discussing the electricity problems in the Kurdistan Region.

"We have decided to give the Electricity Minister post back to the KRG. We will send Barzani the resignation letter of Babakr as the Electricity Minister whenever Barzani returns to the Kurdistan Region," Ahmed said.

Ahmed rejected ideas that Babakr’s resignation was a sign of him escaping from his responsibilities. "Fuel, production and finance, each of them belongs to different ministries. All of them must be under the Ministry of Electricity," Ahmed stated.

Ahmed said that their party could not make any reform in the ministry because of the budget deficiency.

Babakr mentioned that he follows whatever decision Yekgirtu (his party) decides. "KRG promised us before to provide enough fuel and budget to run the ministry, but now what we witness is 1500 electricity megawatts have been stopped due to lack of fuel," he explained.

"I apologize to the people of the Kurdistan Region for not being able to serve them [all] well as the Electricity Minister," he concluded.

Every year, the KRG faces electricity issues, especially in the summer and winter, because people use electricity as the main source of energy to cool and warm their homes. Therefore, this leads to a massive overload and pressure on the KRG Ministry of Electricity.

Besides the overuse of electricity by people, the KRG has encountered a lack of budget since the beginning of 2014 as the Iraqi Federal government started to cut off the Kurdistan Region's budget share, accusing the KRG of selling oil independently.