Iraqi Parliament's Finance Committee expresses concerns over project funding delays, 2 OCT

 Iraqi Parliament's Finance Committee expresses concerns over project funding delays, 2 OCT

Shafaq News / The head of the Financial Committee in the Iraqi Parliament, Attwan Al-Attwani, revealed on Sunday details regarding the hosting of governors of governorates not organized in region in the Parliament building. He emphasized the significant delay in funding ongoing projects, considering it a major concern.

Al-Attwani stated, "The Parliamentary Finance Committee will host the Ministers of Planning and Finance on Monday to seek clarification on numerous questions and inquiries raised by the governorates and committee members."

He added, "There has been a noticeable delay in commencing the financing of many ongoing projects, which is a mistake and unacceptable." He also pointed out that "the Prime Minister and the government program emphasize the continuity of ongoing projects in a natural course and expediting the delivery of services to citizens."

According to a statement received by Shafaq News Agency, the head of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, during the meeting with the governors in the committee, highlighted a clear deficiency in releasing financial allocations for the governorates and ministries. He stressed that "the current government has raised the banner of a national service government, and therefore the committee does not allow the persistence of the problem of delayed financial allocations."

For the first time in its history, Iraq adopted a three-year financial budget in a single law, which was passed by Parliament in June last year. The government defended this step, aiming to lay out plans for important projects in the country and to address the recurring problem of delayed budget approvals, which often lasted several months each year.

According to the budget law, the budget for the current year and the following two years is $153 billion, with an expected deficit of $48 billion. The budget was based on an oil price of $70 per barrel, considering that Iraqi oil exports account for more than 96% of Iraq's financial revenues.

Despite several months passing since its approval, the allocations of the three-year budget have not been implemented on the ground to date. This has led to speculations and inquiries about the reasons behind the delay in implementing its provisions.

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