Finance: The first phase of the program budget includes electricity and two governorates
Iraqi Finance Minister Faleh Sari confirmed on Tuesday that the first phase of the program and performance budget will include the electricity sector and the governorates of Diwaniyah and Salah al-Din, with a gradual expansion to include all state institutions over the next three years. Arabs& Middle Easterners
According to a statement from the Ministry of Finance, which was followed by Shafaq News Agency, this came during a meeting held by the Minister with the Parliamentary Finance Committee today, within the framework of early coordination to prepare the next draft budget in cooperation with the House of Representatives and the World Bank.
Sari explained that “the Ministry of Electricity was chosen because this sector has spent large sums of money over the past years without achieving the desired results, which requires adopting a program budget to ensure that spending is directed towards sustainable solutions and measurable results.”
He added that “the selection of the governorates of Diwaniyah and Salah al-Din comes in light of their need to accelerate the pace of service and development projects, which allows for directing resources according to actual priorities and achieving the best benefit from financial allocations.”
Sari explained to the members of the parliamentary committee the picture of the current financial situation, the measures taken by the ministry to meet financial obligations, in addition to its efforts to maximize non-oil revenues, in order to ensure the continued funding of projects and basic services for citizens.
It is worth noting that the Cabinet approved last June, under the direction of Prime Minister Ali Faleh Al-Zaidi, the formulation of a “program budget” in coordination and joint cooperation with the World Bank and the Parliamentary Finance Committee, to advance the economic reform process in the country.
On Monday, Mazhar Muhammad Salih, advisor to the Iraqi Prime Minister for Financial Affairs, revealed that the Ministry of Finance had begun preparing the draft federal general budget law for 2027, in the first new budget that Iraq has begun preparing after two years of not approving a federal budget.
The government’s commencement of preparing the 2027 budget comes after two years of the absence of an effective federal budget with approved schedules, as the 2025 budget schedules were not approved, nor was a budget law for 2026 approved, despite the House of Representatives, during the government of former Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, approving the three-year budget law for the years 2023, 2024 and 2025.
The 2025 budget, in its updated form, could not be implemented after its schedules were not approved within the House of Representatives and the fiscal year ended, which prompted the Ministry of Finance to adopt a temporary disbursement mechanism at a rate of 1/12, based on the Financial Management Law, to secure salaries, governing expenses and basic obligations.
The 2026 budget was also not approved, due to political complexities and economic pressures resulting from regional tensions and energy market volatility, so Iraq continues to manage its spending according to the temporary spending mechanism, pending a new federal budget.
Shafaq.com