Atwan Al-Atwani, the head of the Finance Committee in the Iraqi Parliament, revealed the details of hosting the governors of governorates that are not organized into regions in the Parliament building on Sunday, and while he noted that there was a significant delay in financing ongoing projects, he considered this a “major disaster.”
Al-Atwani stated to Shafaq News Agency, “The Parliamentary Finance Committee will, tomorrow, Monday, host the Ministers of Planning and Finance to seek clarification regarding many questions and questions raised by the governorates and members of the Finance Committee.”
He stated, “There is a delay in the launch of funding for many ongoing projects, and this is in fact wrong and unacceptable,” pointing out that “the Prime Minister and the government program confirm that ongoing projects are proceeding in a normal manner and quickly completing work and providing services to citizens.”
According to a statement obtained by Shafaq News Agency, while hosting the governors in the Finance Committee, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Finance Committee stated that there was a clear failure to release financial allocations to the governorates and ministries, indicating that “the current government raised the slogan of a national service government, and therefore the committee does not allow the problem of delaying the disbursement of allocations to continue.” Finance.
Iraq passed a three-year financial budget in a single draft law, which Parliament agreed on last June, for the first time in its history. The administration justified the move, claiming that it intends to make plans for major projects in the country while also avoiding the difficulty of postponing the approval of financial budgets for several months every year.
According to the budget law, the budget for the current year and the next two years is 153 billion dollars, with an expected deficit of up to 48 billion dollars, and the oil price has been approved at 70 dollars per barrel, as Iraqi oil exports account for more than 96% of Iraq’s financial imports.
After several months have passed since its approval date, the tripartite budget allocations have yet to be implemented on the ground, allowing for conjecture and queries regarding the reasons for the delay.
