KRG Takes Steps Towards Budget Transparency
ERBIL, Iraqi Kurdistan: A proposed legislation by the Kurdistan Parliament to substantially decrease the budget of the political parties operating here in the Kurdistan region in the north of Iraq was accepted by the regional government last week.
The move is unprecedented since it transparently determines the amount of money each political party will be granted.
In the past, nobody was formally informed of how much money the political parties especially the two dominant ones- the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK)- was assigned.
The draft legislation, which has yet to be voted on by the lawmakers, was sent to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) nine months ago in December 2009. The KRG has now approved the project outright.
According to the legislation, parties to be granted budget are those who have acquired at least one seat in the parliament or gained as many votes as half a seat requires.
“We had analyzed the project once and then sent it to the government. It is related to the budget the government should see the project before it is approved by the parliament,” said Ahmad Ibrahim, a parliament member in the Legal Committee.
But the issue of the per-seat amount of money has yet to be settled, but the parliament members in the legal committee have proposed 60 million Iraqi Dinars (ID) (US$ 5121,61) for each seat.
This amount is unlikely to change since the government, representing the two ruling parties, has been satisfied with it.
Thus the budgets of the main political parties will be like this. The KDP, with 30 seats, will be granted 1,800 billion ID per month, PUK, with 29 seats, will be granted 1,740 billion ID.
Gorran, the major opposition party that has 25 seats, will get 1,500 billion ID.
Regarding the two Islamic opposition parties, the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) will get 360 million ID as it has only six seats in the parliament. The final opposition party, the Kurdistan Islamic Group (Komal), will be granted 4,240 million ID as it has 4 seats.
The decline in the budget of the political parties is very notable. Given the two ruling parties, they got US$ 35 million each month in the previous term by the admission of certain officilias, but now it has declined to US$ 5 million.
Nobody seems to be against this initiative but smaller political parties who did not win enough votes in the elections to get a representation in the parliament.
“All the parties represented in the parliament agree with the legislation that allocates the budget based on seats. We have yet to agree on the amount. The 60 million ID was a proposal made by the members of the Legal Committee,” said Ibrahim.
Bayiz Talabani, Kurdistan’s Minister of Finance, said they keep working on the old mechanism until the project gets passed, a date which has yet to be known.
“Once the parliament passes the bill, we will definitely implement it.”
Arif Qurabni, editor-in-chief of Asso newspaper, a newspaper close to the Prime Minister Barham Salih, credits Salih for the project saying that the extra money could be used for public projects.
Transparency International has listed Iraq as the fifth most corrupt country of the world in 2009, making no distinction between the Kurdistan region and the rest of Iraq.
Tagged in: Iraqi Kurdistan, Kurdistan Regional Government, transparency
