Baghdad Bickers With Regions Over Iraqi Budget
The yearly argument over the budget in Iraq has yet again come to the fore, as the parliament cannot decide on what proportion to give to each of Iraq’s regions, writes Omar al-Shaher.
For years, Iraqis have been accustomed to discussing the annual budget twice: when the parliament endorses the budget discussions, and when the provinces announce their shares. In any case, the public is angry, criticizing the political conflicts that hamper ratification and the bureaucracy and corruption that impede the buget's disbursement.
Recurrently, discussions of these two subjects coincide, as is happening this month. As Iraqis wait impatiently for the parliament to ratify the 2013 budget, information spreads around the capital about the failure of many provinces to spend their shares of last year’s budget.
For the last three weeks, the Iraqi parliament has delayed voting on the 2013 budget amid a bitter dispute regarding the share of the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan. The State of Law Coalition, led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, is trying to slash this share from 17% to 12%, which has led to vehement Kurdish objections.
An informed source in the province of Nineveh, which contains the second largest city in Iraq, said that “the local government of the province has failed to spend around $6 billion of its $10 billion share in the 2012 budget.” The Sunni-majority province, a laggard in services and infrastructure expenditure, has spent less than half of its allocation.
