Al-Tamimi clarifies the legality and feasibility of paying salaries in dollars instead of dinars.
Legal expert Ali Al-Tamimi explained the legality and possibility of moving towards paying salaries in Iraq in US dollars instead of Iraqi dinars.
Al-Tamimi told Al-Maalouma, “Iraq does not have any legal basis at present, and its application is a clear violation of existing laws and requires legislative amendment, because the laws of service and salaries stipulated the dinar exclusively, as the State and Public Sector Employees Salaries Law No. 22 of 2008, Article (1) defined the salary, and Article (3) and the salary schedule attached to the law specified the amount of the salary in numbers in Iraqi dinars exclusively, and any payment in another currency is considered an amendment to the salary schedule and this can only be done by law according to Article 3/Second of the same law.”
He added that “Civil Service Law No. 24 of 1960, in Article (56) and beyond, when it speaks about salary and allowances, assumes that they are in the national currency. The Central Bank Law also prohibits this, as Law No. 56 of 2004 indicated in Article (32), Paragraph One (the Iraqi dinar shall be the national currency, and the only legal tender that has unlimited legal tender power within Iraq).”
He explained that “Article (33) confirmed (no person may be obliged to accept a currency other than the dinar in settling debts within Iraq), in addition to the fact that the salary is a debt owed by the state to the employee, so it must be paid in the legal currency.”
He pointed out that “the only exception permitted by the legislator is outside Iraq, for the payment of allowances to Ministry of Foreign Affairs employees abroad. Furthermore, the instructions for sending employees abroad have permitted the payment of salaries and allowances in foreign currency (dollars) for embassy and mission staff and scholarship students, because the place of payment is outside Iraqi monetary sovereignty. However, this is not permissible within Iraq.”
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