The central bank is approaching banks to postpone the retirement loans

Al Furat News / The Central Bank of Iraq announced, on Saturday, the approach of government banks regarding the measures taken with regard to postponing the payment of retired loans.

Al Furat News obtained a document from the bank’s address to the House of Representatives, regarding the postponement of retirement loan payments, which included the following: “We would like to inform you that government banks have been approached for the purpose of informing us of the measures taken in relation to paragraph (1) of the Supreme Committee’s Health and National Safety Decision No. ( 24) for the year 2020 in accordance with the letter of the Banking Control Department No. 9/2182 dated 7/7/2020, and we will inform you about the developments of the subject later.

Alforatnews.com

Parliamentary Economist: We will hold the Finance Minister accountable if he does not pay the salaries of employees before the Eid

Baghdad / The Parliamentary Economic Committee confirmed today, Saturday, that the slight increase in oil prices will reflect positively on reducing the government’s fiscal deficit, while threatening to hold the Finance Minister accountable unless he issues orders to pay the salaries of employees before Eid al-Adha.

Member of the Parliamentary Economic Committee Nada Shaker Jawdat told Al-Ikhbaria that the government is obligated according to the law of external and internal borrowing to pay the salaries of employees this week without any cut or delay.

“There is no justification, especially with the occasion of the holiday of delaying salaries, and the Minister of Finance will be held accountable in case of failure again on the issue of salaries.”

Jawdat pointed out that “a slight improvement took place in oil prices, and this reflected positively on Iraqi oil revenues and a decrease in the deficit, which contributes to financially supporting the government at the present time and reducing dependence on oil in the coming months through the development of other economic projects.”

Ikhnews.com

In Diyala .. A demand to implement Article 140 to end crises

Shafaq News / The Deputy of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in Diyala, Sherko Mirwais, confirmed on Saturday that 80 percent of the residents of the disputed areas in Diyala are demanding the revival of Article 140 and its implementation as soon as possible to get out of the worsening security and service crises.

Mirwais told Shafaq News, “Civil committees and organizations in Khanaqin previously launched extensive media and social campaigns to educate on the necessity of adopting Article 140 as the main solution to the accumulated problems in the disputed areas in Diyala and even other provinces.”

He pointed out that “the committees and organizations are determined to move through governmental and parliamentary channels and the United Nations to deliver the legitimate demands of the residents of the disputed areas who have become victims of problems and political conflicts and have become prey to armed groups amid the security weakness that prevails in their areas.”

Mirwais added that “the campaign to implement Article 140 will not stop, which is a popular demand to restore rights and liberation from the massive social tragedies that the disputed regions have been experiencing for decades.”

Mirwais affirmed that “80 percent of the residents of Khanaqin and the disputed administrative units in Diyala are calling for accelerating their implementation according to a short timetable and under UN supervision to address the collapse of service structures, widespread poverty, unemployment and lack of job opportunities as a result of the disruption of the exploitation of natural resources on national and political grounds.”

Article 140 provides for the removal of demographic policies conducted by Saddam Hussein’s regime in those areas in favor of the Arabs at the expense of the Kurds and Turkmen, and then counts the population before the last step that is to hold a referendum whereby the population determines whether they wish to join a northern region of the country or remain under the administration of the government Central in Baghdad.

The stages of implementing the article were to be completed until the end of 2007, but security and political problems prevented this, as the Kurds accused Baghdad of delaying the implementation of the article.

Shafaaq.com

Iraq faces “irreversible shocks” without urgent economic reforms

Rudaw Digital – warned Iraqi Finance Minister Ali Allawi today, Monday (22 June 2020), in an exclusive interview with Agence France-Presse, that the Iraqi economy may face “shocks that we will not be able to deal with” unless reform measures are adopted in less than a year.

“Reform is necessary,” said Allawi (73 years), who was charged with stabilizing the Iraqi economy after the collapse of crude oil prices, which cut the state revenue by half.

He added, “If we do not adjust matters during this year, we may face shocks that we will not be able to deal with,” while expectations indicate that the Iraqi economy will face a contraction of 10 percent during the year.

Allawi, who was also finance minister during the transitional government’s period between 2005 and 2006, indicated that the situation today is “worse” because Baghdad faces an “existential economic situation”.

At that point, the price of a barrel of oil was approximately $ 35, but the number of state employees was less than a million.

Today there are more than four million employees, and many other Iraqis who are paid salaries and pensions. This means a monthly sum of between four and five billion dollars.

With one in five Iraqis receiving government aid, the bill becomes heavier for the country that depends on paying all its expenditures on oil whose prices collapsed months ago with a severe shortage of demand for it.

Empty treasury and aliens

According to Allawi, the government must pay the salaries of the months of June and July at the appointed time, by borrowing from government banks.

But he warned that these measures are possible for a short period, otherwise “they will affect the price structure and, consequently, on inflation, which will in turn affect the exchange rate and the reserve in the central bank.”

He added that in the face of the expenses that have increased over the years, the government found the treasury empty, after 17 years of the American invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime and established a new political system ravaged by corruption and cronyism, and put Iraq in high positions among the list of the most corrupt countries in the world.

“The government is supposed to have one and a half months of expenses before it faces crises,” Allawi told France Presse from his home in Baghdad.

He added, “We were supposed to have liquidity between ten to 15 trillion dinars, but the treasury contained only two trillion dinars.”

Experts today, including Allawi, believe that the entire financial system of Iraq, the second largest oil producer in OPEC, must be reviewed.

Allawi said that 40 million Iraqis will have to submit to a strict austerity policy that may last for “two years.”

In addition, the authorities will address loopholes in the spending schedule, especially with regard to multiple salaries or “aliens” as they are called, and they are registered in the payroll without working.

Oil and confidence

At the government level, long-awaited promises to diversify the economy, not to make the country’s fate dependent on global crude markets, and start discussions with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund will have to be implemented.

Allawi stressed that “if the price of oil continues at this level for a year, and spending remains the same, undoubtedly we will collide with a wall. We cannot run a country, especially from the economic side, with only hope that the oil prices will rise to cover the expenses.”

The question is: Can a transitional government, formed during the most serious social crisis in the country, undertake a complete reform of the economy?

Although Allawi experienced a similar crisis in 2005, he admitted this time that the crisis of trust between citizens and the authority widened, after six months of an unprecedented popular uprising that was suppressed by force by the previous government of Adel Abdul Mahdi.

Indeed, at the beginning of the current month of June, when pensions were deducted in the first steps of the government austerity policy, the protest was unanimous against Allawi and Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi, even within the parliament that is usually entrusted with approving reforms, especially the fight against corruption that led to more evaporation. Of $ 450 billion in public money since 2003.

Rudaw.net

A Fatah member reveals an agreement between the three presidencies on the House of Representatives

On Wednesday, a member of the Al-Fateh coalition, Ghazanfar Al-Bateekh, considered that the three presidencies agreed on the continued obstruction of the parliament.

Watermelon told / information / that “there is a tripartite agreement between the President of the Republic, Parliament and the government to disrupt the parliament sessions,” noting that “Washington is fully aware of this agreement.”

He believed that “the decision to dissolve the House of Representatives must be taken immediately without any consensual or political consultations, as it overburdened the state with explosive budgets,” noting that “Muhammad Al-Halbousi made a very dangerous precedent when he disrupted the work of Parliament and made the attendance of sessions from one o’clock in the afternoon.”

Alliraqnews.com

Minister of Finance: 300 thousand “space” employees in Iraq

Iraqi Finance Minister Ali Allawi reported that there are about 300,000 “space” employees in Iraq, warning that economic problems may spark a state of insecurity in the country.

And the Financial Times quoted Allawi as saying that radical reform is the only way to avoid a “catastrophe” for the oil-dependent country, noting that all that can be done is to refer to the “catastrophe” facing the country, if the path continues.

Allawi has previously studied at Harvard University, and has taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The Iraqi Minister of Finance, warned of “grave security consequences” in the event that the country’s economy is not radically restructured, at a time when the crisis of the Corona Virus is struck, and its reflection on commercial activities and the damage of the collapse of oil prices to state revenues, indicating inflation spending and a monthly wage bill The value of $ 5 billion for the massive public payroll.

Concerning “space” employees, that is, those who do not exist in the state’s departments, while these influential people receive salaries, Allawi explained that the issues that were buried because of the large and growing oil revenues are now evolving, and this includes payments for an estimated 300,000 “ghost” or fictional employee ” “.

The price of crude oil has fallen to more than half compared to last year 2019, as it dealt a blow to the financial position of the second largest producer in OPEC, “Iraq”.

Allawi believed that the economy, if not radically restructured in a highly coherent and well-implemented medium-term program, could have truly severe security consequences.

According to the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, Iraq’s revenue from oil exports fell from 6.1 billion dollars in January, to their lowest levels at 1.4 billion dollars last April.

While the collapse of world oil prices has harmed the Iraqi economy before, Allawi says that Baghdad “can no longer” rely on prices to bounce again, arguing that this may spur reforms, confirming that there is “increasing recognition” that the country is moving to an environment with prices Oil is relatively low, and an alternative to restructuring public financial resources should be found to take into account this new normal.

The 73-year-old minister is part of a transitional government appointed to steer Iraq toward new elections, after mass protests against the institution toppled the previous government.

The country’s poverty rate is expected to rise to 31.7 percent this year, from 20 percent in 2018, as the Corona pandemic crisis pushes 4.5 million Iraqis below the poverty line, according to a new joint assessment by the government, the United Nations, the World Bank, and Oxford University.

According to the World Bank, if oil prices remain below $ 30, Iraq will shift from having a fiscal surplus to a deficit equal to more than a quarter of its gross domestic product.

Analysts said the government can take advantage of $ 68 billion in foreign reserves to cover dollar bills, such as imports and debt service, and is expected to borrow $ 18 billion locally and abroad to cover government wages for the next few months.

On the subject of the loan, Allawi said that Iraq has regular and intense discussions with the International Monetary Fund, adding that Baghdad may apply for some budget support, describing the bill of “inflated wages” is to some extent a “legacy of Iraq’s recent violent history”, and that 40 To 45 percent of public sector employees in the vast Iraqi security forces.

Rudaw.net

BGG ~ This is probably more accurately translated as “Ghost employees”, a corruption issue for a long time now and one of the big reasons no one wants to just give them money for “salaries”.

It would all go to these corrupt politicians via this sham payroll scam.

The good news – the MoF is going after them in an open, honest, legal fashion.

The Central Bank Withdraws The License Of A Brokerage Firm To Buy And Sell Currencies For “Violating The Instructions”

The bank said in a statement received by the (Independent) today that:

(1) “given the violation of the Al-Durr brokerage company for buying and selling foreign currencies, the provisions of the instructions for organizing the work of the brokerage firms and the purchase of foreign currencies, it was decided to withdraw the company’s license.”

The bank added,

(2) “It was also decided to confiscate the letter of guarantee deposited with this bank amounting to 50 million dinars,” calling on the Ministry of Commerce to “cancel the establishment certificate granted to it in addition to removing the company name from the records and providing the Central Bank with a certified liquidation letter.”
The Central Bank of Iraq was established as an independent bank under its law issued on the sixth of March of the year 2004, as an independent body, and is responsible for maintaining price stability and implementing monetary policy, and supervises 10 commercial banks, 26 private banks and 16 Islamic banks, in addition to 19 foreign banks, as well About 6 financial institutions and 31 money transfer companies.

Mustaqila.com

Parliamentary finance reassures employees about the salaries of the next three months

Member of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, Muhammad Sahib Al Daraji, confirmed on Sunday that the salaries of employees for the next three months are secured through the borrowing law, and they will be paid “without delay”.

“The Finance Committee is awaiting the economic reform paper that will be presented by the government,” Daraji said in a statement to government media.

He continued, “The Finance Committee is working to merge the legislative reform paper with the executive paper,” stressing “the importance of activating the economic reform bill.”

A well-informed source told Al-Sumaria News last Thursday that the Ministry of Finance had directed the distribution of employee salaries before Eid al-Adha.

The source indicated that “the guidance came after salaries were secured for the month of July, according to the Internal and External Borrowing Law of 2020.”

Faceiraq.org

The investigation of electricity contracts is intensifying … We will diagnose corrupt people, whoever they are

Shafaq News / The head of the investigation committee for electricity contracts, Hassan Al-Kaabi, announced today, Sunday, that the amounts spent on electricity are “very large” that are not commensurate with the suffering of the citizen during the previous years, and while he stressed that his committee “will not be like its predecessors”, he pledged to expose the entire waste of public money Corruption in this sector since 2003.

In a statement received to Shafaq News, Al-Kaabi said that the Parliamentary and Supervisory Committee charged with investigating and auditing the contracts of the Ministry of Electricity, headed by him, visited today, the headquarters of the Ministry of Electricity, indicating that they were received by Minister Majid Mahdi of the Emirate and the advance staff in the ministry.

Al-Kaabi, upon his arrival with the Investigation Committee, chaired an expanded meeting in which a full review was made of the actual investment spending of the Ministry from 2005 to 2019, energy production projects, stations rehabilitation, energy transmission and distribution projects, rehabilitation of power transmission lines and lines, and expenditures of the upstream departments, as well as the current spending of the Ministry with all the details and total Design and lost capabilities of stations implemented since 2003 until today, according to the statement.

Al-Kaabi stressed that the investigation committee will not be like its predecessors from the parliamentary committees and we will not discuss any future plans and programs for the work of the Ministry of Electricity, but rather the origin of the formation of the committee is the full scrutiny and investigation of all of the ministry’s contracts since 2003 to 2020 and the disclosure of all public money waste and corruption that accompanied them, pointing to The amounts spent on electricity, according to the tables he personally viewed today, are “very large” that are not commensurate with the size of the citizen’s suffering and his continuous tragedy during the previous years of the deterioration and lack of electric power without real knowledge of the reasons.

The committee, headed by Al-Kaabi, called on the Ministry of Electricity to officially answer a set of issues, including those related to obstetric stations and the economic feasibility of them in light of the available capabilities, and to provide them with a list of concluded contracts, their classification, their value, the duration of implementation and the companies implemented and automated in the checks, the timing of the contract, construction, qualification and type of fuel until July 2020.

Al-Kaabi noted that the committee will start hosting a number of officials inside and outside the ministry, including them in the ongoing service or outside it, according to what the committee considers and its work, and within the frameworks of the official investigation, to diagnose the deficiencies, whether in the ministry or other ministries and relevant government institutions, and the causes of corruption And his people, whoever they are and wherever they are.

The President of the Iraqi Council of Representatives, Mohamed Al-Halbousi, instructed, on July 12, to form a committee to scrutinize and investigate the contracts of the Ministry of Electricity.

Faceiraq.org

Al-Kazemi stresses the need to fortify the Iraqi media network from political influences and pressures

Baghdad / news – The Prime Minister, Mustafa Al-Kazemi, received today, Sunday, the Chairman and members of the Board of Trustees of the Iraqi Media Network, and the media, Nabil Jassem.

During the meeting, according to a statement received by Al-Akhbaria, Al-Kazimi stressed the government’s support for a free and independent media in Iraq, as a tool for building the state and consolidating its national constants, stressing “the need to fortify the Iraqi media network from political influences and pressures, to remain a free media platform in the industry A public opinion that believes in the unity of Iraq, the integrity of the country and its foundations. ”

Al-Kazimi reiterated his support for the work of the Iraqi Media Network and the options of the Board of Trustees, calling on the members of the Council and Nabeel Jassem to present a reform working paper on developing the work of the media network, enabling it to perform its pivotal role and carry out its tasks in an optimal manner.

Faceiraq.org