HEADLINES:

Baghdad agrees to send $137m for KRG salary payments

KRG Spokesperson Jotiar Adil. Jun 30, 2021. (credit: Facebook/ Jotiar Adil)
PM:05:34:02/11/2021

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SULAIMANI — Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Spokesperson Jotiar Adil said on Tuesday (November 2) that the federal Council of Ministers approved a cash transfer of 200 billion Iraqi dinars ($137 million) to help the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to pay its public servants for this past month.

Adil said in a statement that the Iraqi cabinet also approved an additional allocation of 3 billion dinars ($2 million) in relief for the victims of the recent flooding in Erbil.

Earlier on Tuesday, Adil said that this month’s funds had not been transferred, blaming that in part for the slow disbursement of salaries to public servants this month along with the KRG’s own struggles to collect internal income like taxes.

The money is not part of the budget was the result of a pre-election deal brokered between KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi.

Erbil and Baghdad remain at loggerheads over the federal budget.

Last year, Barzani said that the KRG has $33 billion in debts and obligations and no savings.

It has struggled to pay its public servants, missing five months of payments entirely in 2020 and cutting most other salary disbursements by nearly a quarter.

(NRT Digital Media)