A deputy criticizes the Iraqi parliament: The current session failed to question any government officials.
MP Haitham al-Fahd of the Basis bloc confirmed on Saturday that parliament had collected signatures to question Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani’s government, including al-Sudani himself and all his ministers. However, what he described as “political quotas and bribery” had stalled the process.
Al-Fahd told Shafaq News Agency, “The House of Representatives’ oversight role is obstructed by political partisan quotas and the bribery of officials who are being questioned.”
He explained that “members of Parliament have collected signatures to interrogate most of the government’s executive officials, including the Prime Minister, ministers, agency heads, general managers, and others. Unfortunately, no corrupt government official has been investigated or held accountable.”
Al-Fahd pointed out that “partisan and political quotas are what are disrupting and sabotaging the House of Representatives’ oversight work,” adding that the House is nearing its end and the parliamentary session has not been able to question any official in the current government.
It’s worth noting that MP Mustafa Al-Karawi confirmed on Tuesday, September 2, that the parliamentary process for questioning Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani over his failure to submit the federal budget had been completed.
Al-Karawi said in a Facebook post, “After I filed a lawsuit against the government with the Public Prosecution, which in turn referred the matter to the House of Representatives to assume its constitutional role, we followed the necessary legal and political steps, followed by submitting an oral question to the Minister of Finance in the House.”
He added, “We have completed the procedures for questioning the Prime Minister, along with our fellow representatives from the Central and Southern Fronts. We approached the Speaker of Parliament to set an official date for questioning the Prime Minister, due to his failure to submit the budget schedules and final accounts, in addition to the delay in the draft federal civil service law.”
A few days ago, the Supreme Judicial Council sent an official letter to the House of Representatives regarding the government’s delay in sending the general budget schedules, considering that this delay constitutes a breach of the constitutional and legal obligations stipulated in Article 62/First of the Constitution.
In the same context, MP Hadi Hassan Al-Salami submitted an official request to the House of Representatives Presidency to table the interpellation of the Prime Minister during the next parliamentary session, stating that the failure to submit the budget tables represents a clear breach of the government’s constitutional obligations.
Al-Salami explained, according to an official document that reached Shafaq News Agency, that the request is based on the provisions of Article (61/Seventh-C) of the Constitution, Articles (27, 29, 31) of the Council of Representatives Law, and Internal Regulations No. (13) of 2018, pointing out that the budget issue is one of the most important topics of the interpellation that the Parliament Presidency must set a date for a special session regarding it.
Shafaq.com