Ikhlas Al-Dulaimi is a member of the Iraqi parliamentary finance committee, who confirmed on Tuesday that all Iraqis, not only those within the Kurdistan Region, are experiencing delays in salary payments in the public sector.
“People are suffering delays in their salary payments in all Iraqi governorates involved, not just the Kurdistan Region. This is due to the problems with providing financial liquidity,” Al-Dulaimi stated in remarks to reporters in Makhmour, Nineveh.
She has said that “partial payments for some ministries in the Kurdistan Region have already started today,” although she added “salary payments are essential and may be running abut late…all governorate’s salaries will be fully funded including the Kurdistan Region in less than a week.”
This, he said, would be resolved in the following month, where salaries will be paid on time to every employee, including those in Kurdistan.
The finance committee went further to explain that it is not having serious cash flow problems, as rumored, which might affect the payment of employees’ salaries due to liquidity problems.
“Things are under control from a financial perspective, and [the] government is committed to timely payments of salaries without delay,” said committee member Jamal Kujar at a press conference.
In other words, Kujar rejected rumors that the country’s economy had been affected by the falling price of oil worldwide.
“To date, there has been no reporting of a delay in salaries, and they are being paid off at the end of each month,” he said.
Similar opinions were echoed by the financial advisor, Mohammed Saleh Mazhar, who also indicated that there is no ground for problems that revolve around issues of liquidity.
In a press release, Saleh said, “Claims about deteriorating liquidity conditions reflect personal interpretations that do not resonate with the professional and technical facts relating to the conduct of monetary policy and general liquidity management”. Steady cash flow related to the federal budget remains so high because of strong oil and rising other revenue.
