Baghdad, March 10: The regional government in Iraqi Kurdistan has presented its 2011 budget plan to the parliament despite pessimism expressed by opposition lawmakers.
Amidst the political protests that have rocked the Kurdish region and following the deaths of several demonstrators, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has quietly released its plans for this year’s $11 billion budget, a Media correspondent reported on Wednesday.
The KRG Prime Minister Bahram Salih said the Council of Ministers has agreed on this year’s budget.
“We will ask the parliament to investigate these articles and hear their opinions freely,” he said.
Each year’s budget in the KRG has been subjected to strong criticism from opposition political blocs for an alleged lack of transparency, and this year’s is no different.
Many economists have long criticized the KRG’s economic activities.
This year’s budget again entails an estimated 65 percent of the money paid purely for operational fees.
Government figures say this high figure is largely due to salaries paid to the hundreds of thousands of military forces charged with border protection and security.
Some $170 million is given directly to the annual budgets of the two ruling parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.
However, members of the governing coalition, say they have complete faith in the new budget.
Without independent auditing of the budget, it is impossible for neutral observers to determine whose analysis is more accurate.
Opposition MPs will have every chance in parliament to question and discuss the details of the budget, but given the governing coalition’s clear parliamentary majority, the budget will most likely pass.
——-Agencies