Kurdistan region spent over 3.7 billion dollars on government employee salary in 2022

Kurdistan region spent over 3.7 billion dollars on government employee salary in 2022

kurdsatnews

Jul 4, 2022

Kurdistan region bank employee counting civil servant salary.

The Kurdistan region can pay its employees' salaries without Baghdad sending the region's budget share. Since early 2014, the Kurdistan region has partially paid its employees. Lack of cash forced the Kurdistan regional government to pay civil servants once every two months or every 70 or 80 days, causing severe discontent among the region's people.

KurdSat found out that the Kurdistan Region government has spent 5.4 trillion dinars or 3.7 billion USD on the salaries of civil servants in the first six months of this year.

According to the investigation, only 7 per cent or four hundred trillion Iraqi dinars of the money came from Baghdad, while the rest came from the region's independent sale of its energy.

A spike in oil prices and increased domestic revenues have helped the government of the Kurdistan region to independently pay its employees without cash from Baghdad, which previously it could not.

In February 2022, the Iraqi supreme court ruled that the Kurdistan region's independent handling of its energy sector was unconstitutional. Since then, Baghdad has withheld the region's share of the Budget.

The region's government employees comprise the largest portion of the budget pie. In a region of 6 million people, 1.2 million people are employed by the government, making them a heavy burden on the region with immense political, economic and social complications.

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