KTFA
FRANK26: "BUDGET SCHEDULES START".........F26
Good news for Iraqi employees.. Parliamentary Finance announces the date of launching bonuses and promotions
1/24/2025
The Finance Committee in the Iraqi Council of Representatives clarified on Friday that it is waiting for the Iraqi government to send the 2025 budget schedules for approval, and while it expected the date for launching employee allowances and promotions according to the applicable timetable, it confirmed that allowances and promotions are a natural right of employees from the Ministry of Finance.
"The budget approved in 2023 is a three-year budget for the years (2023, 2024 and 2025), and the change that occurred as a first stage is the amendment to Article 12/Second/C only, which is regarding the resumption of oil exports from the Kurdistan Region with a capacity of 400 thousand barrels of oil, at a cost of extracting and transporting one barrel of $16 instead of $6, and this was read in the first reading, and the discussion remains in the second reading and then voting on the amendment, and after this amendment there are no other amendments to the budget," committee member, Moeen Al-Kadhimi, told Shafaq News Agency.
Al-Kadhimi added, "The Finance Committee is waiting, after the budget amendment is completed, for the government to send the budget tables that will show whether there are specific increases or otherwise."
Regarding employee bonuses and promotions, Al-Kadhimi explained, "This is related to the Ministry of Finance, which issued a statement suspending bonuses until the budget is approved, and according to the timetable in effect, bonuses may be added to employee salaries next February, which is a natural right of employees over the Ministry of Finance."
On January 17, the Iraqi Ministry of Finance confirmed that employees’ rights to bonuses and promotions are “fully preserved.”
The Ministry's media said in a statement received by Shafak News Agency, "Based on the Ministry of Finance's circular No. (555) for the year 2025, we would like to clarify that the procedures related to stopping the transfer of services, promotions, calculating contract services, press and legal services, and others, are regulatory procedures that are adopted annually to accurately determine financial allocations."
She added that "transferring services from one entity to another requires transferring allocations, which currently cannot be implemented due to the lack of 2025 budget schedules, as this allows knowing the financial allocations for each entity to ensure that there are no violations or imbalances in the financial distribution."
She explained that she is working to "ensure the regulation of government spending and determine the ceilings of financial allocations for ministries and entities not affiliated with a ministry, including the Kurdistan Region."
The ministry stressed, according to the statement, "the importance of following up on new appointments and knowing the numbers of direct and indirect employees to avoid any funding shortage and ensure that salaries are paid correctly during the current month of January."
The Ministry stressed that "employees' rights to bonuses and promotions are fully preserved, and that they are calculated in accordance with the Legal Department's Circular No. (7497) dated 3/9/2021, which is calculated from the date of entitlement and not from the date of issuance of the ministerial order."
The ministry noted that "the procedures for direct admission of top students and graduates for the year 2024, launched by the Federal Service Council, have not been fully completed, and their data is still being updated."
The ministry indicated that "most of the financial allocations for the new grades for the year 2024 were included in the schedules of the ministries' headquarters, but the actual direct actions and distribution took place at the level of the departments, and have not yet been sent to the Ministry of Finance. Therefore, the ministry is currently working on following up on the financial costs of the employees to include them correctly and to ensure that there is no shortage in the allocation from the 2025 estimates schedules."
