Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Finance Minister Rebaz Hamlan said on Tuesday (January 15) that Baghdad appeared ready to transfer funds to pay the salaries of the Regions public servants for the last three months of 2018. He said that a provision to do so has been included in the the draft federal budget for 2019. He added that KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani had previously called on Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi to include the measure. Hamlan told the reporters in a statement that the draft budget as currently written says that Baghdad will include funds to pay for the October, November, and December 2018 salaries for public servants when it transfers the Regions share of the budget. ”If the Iraqi draft budget for 2019 is approved as it is now and Baghdad sends the budget share, we would distribute [those salaries],” Hamaln said. “When we receive that money, we will combine it with local income in order to pay salaries for those three months.” (NRT Digital Media)