THE GENERAL BUDGET LAW: CAN IT BE ISSUED IN THE EVENT OF A CONSTITUTIONAL VACUUM?
A financial advisor confirmed that the 2026 budget law can be issued in the event of any constitutional vacuum, after consulting the opinion of the Supreme Federal Court.
The Prime Minister’s financial advisor, Mazhar Muhammad Salih, explained on Thursday that government spending will continue according to the (1/12) rule until the 2026 budget is approved, while noting that the monthly salaries of employees, retirees and welfare amount to 8 trillion dinars.
(Mnt Goat: how do they get into this situation each year after the election? It is because they do not follow the constitutional deadlines to move the election process along. What caused the delay this time was not the Kurds as it was the proposed nomination of Nori al-Maliki.)
Continuation of fiscal policy
Saleh said : “The fiscal policy has been carrying out its duties since the second month of this year 2026 in accordance with the provisions of the amended Federal Financial Management Law No. (6) of 2019, by spending at a rate of (1/12) of the actual current public expenditures for the year 2025.”
He explained that “public finances benefit from the provisions of paragraph (29) of the aforementioned law, which allows the financial authority to adopt temporary financing mechanisms and liquidity management in the event that spending cannot be carried out according to the legally legislated regular budget.”
He added that “the aforementioned provisions confirm the principle of temporary financing in the event of a delay in the approval of the budget law or a temporary shortage of liquidity necessary for spending. This allows the Ministry of Finance to take transitional financial measures that ensure the continued disbursement of priority expenditures without delay. Foremost among these are salaries, wages, pensions and social welfare allocations, which are estimated at about eight trillion dinars per month.”
The possibility of issuing the general budget law
Regarding the possibility of legislating the budget law in the event of a failure to elect a president, Saleh explained that “this is a rare occurrence, but it may impose itself due to the necessities of the supreme national interest, especially since the House of Representatives is the constitutional body competent to legislate the budget law. In this context, the possibility of issuing the 2026 budget law can be considered after consulting the opinion of the Supreme Federal Court, as it is a constitutional court specializing in resolving the problems of parliamentary sessions, especially in cases of the complete absence of the president.”
He also pointed out that “the President of the Republic, Abdul Latif Jamal Rashid, and the Prime Minister, Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, are still in a position of legal responsibility at the moment, which allows, in principle, the request to prepare a draft of the federal general budget law and submit it to the House of Representatives to begin the legislative process, if the elected legislative authority wishes to do so.”