Peshmerga ministry going to Baghdad to track down delayed budget
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Peshmerga have not yet received funds allocated to them in the Iraqi budget and the ministry will send an envoy to Baghdad to track down the money, secretary-general of the Peshmerga Ministry told Rudaw. A member of the Iraqi parliament finance committee believes the problem is bureaucratic, not political.
In the 2019 federal budget, the Peshmerga have been allocated 68 billion dinars ($57 million) monthly. The funds come out of the budget given to the Iraqi army and are intended for salaries only, said Secretary-General Jabar Yawar, but “it has not been sent for the last three months.”
His ministry has tried to get answers from the Iraqi Defense Ministry, to no avail, and they are now sending a representative with a letter to Baghdad to follow up.
The 2019 budget marked the start of a return to cooperative relations between Erbil and Baghdad under the new government of Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi. In the budget, Baghdad agreed to resume sending the Kurdistan Region its share of money from federal coffers in exchange for Erbil handing over oil and customs revenues.
Baghdad has sent Erbil the Kurdistan Region’s monthly share, but the Peshmerga funds have not yet been transferred. A member of the Iraqi parliament’s financial committee does not believe there is a political problem. His committee followed up on the matter last month.
The payment “has no issue, but the delay is due to bureaucracy,” Sherwan Mirza Qadir told Rudaw on Tuesday.
“The lack of a minister may be one of the reasons,” he speculated.
Iraq is still without a Minister of Defense because of disputes among Sunni factions. The post is being filled temporarily by a deputy, according to Qadir.
Previous Iraqi governments under PMs Nouri al-Maliki and Haider al-Abadi refused to send Peshmerga salaries on the pretext the Peshmerga payroll was unclear and inflated.
The budget passed in late February, “is the first time Peshmerga salaries are fixed in the Iraqi budget law. And this is a guarantee that these salaries will be sent to the Kurdistan Region monthly,” MP Ahmad Haji Rashid told Rudaw earlier this month.
The Peshmerga are undergoing organizational reforms to professionalize the force, under the direction of British, American, and German allies.