ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A delegation from Erbil will visit Baghdad after the November 11 parliamentary election to discuss unpaid civil servant salaries, a senior Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) official said on Saturday.
“Immediately after the election, a delegation from the Kurdistan Regional Government will go to Baghdad to discuss the fate of those salaries,” Rebaz Hamlan, assistant to Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani and former KRG finance minister, told Rudaw.
Public employees in the Kurdistan Region have not been paid for September and October, while their federal counterparts have received their salaries on time. Iraqi authorities claim the KRG has failed to meet its financial obligations, but Hamlan put the blame firmly on Baghdad.
“There are no technical issues remaining between the Kurdistan Region and Baghdad,” he said, adding that they have consistently handed over 120 billion dinars (about $91.5 million) from internal revenues to Baghdad as part of the KRG’s obligations to secure the monthly salaries of its civil servants.
“For the September salaries, we told them if they decide to send the funds before the election, we will deposit the 120 billion dinars (about $91.5 million) into the federal Ministry of Finance's account at the Central Bank's Kurdistan Region branch,” he said.
Salary payments for the KRG’s public workforce have consistently been delayed as the federal and regional governments exchange blame.
Prime Minister Barzani on Thursday accused the federal government of politicizing the salaries of over one million civil servants in the Region.
“Unfortunately, the salaries’ issue has been politicized,” he told Rudaw. “We have always said that the regional government has fulfilled all of its commitments. We have done everything required - and even more.”