Monday Morning Iraq Economic News Highlights 12-5-22
Parliamentary: Discussions And Dialogues To Reconsider The Exchange Rate Of The Dollar
Political | 02:44 – 05/12/2022 Special – Mawazine News,the representative of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Najwa Hamid, confirmed the parliament’s move towards reconsidering the exchange rate of the dollar.
Hamid told Mawazine News, “There are discussions and dialogues between members of the House of Representatives, and the Finance Committee specifically, to reconsider the exchange rate of the dollar, and we imagine that an appropriate price will be maintained.”
And she continued, “The rapid rise led to a clear economic deterioration, due to the failure to study the negatives and positives about the matter, so there is a real necessity to restore the exchange rate of the dollar.” Ended 29/N33 https://www.mawazin.net/Details.aspx?jimare=213288
Parliament Hopes That The Budget Will Arrive This Week: Its Deficit Is 10 Trillion Dinars
Posted On2022-12-05 By Sotaliraq Baghdad / Firas Adnan The Finance Committee in Parliament still hopes that the budget law will arrive before the legislative recess that begins next Friday, and stressed that its approval will need a discussion that exceeds a month in a few days, relying on the political agreements under which the government was formed, estimating the financial deficit in it at 10 trillion dinars.
Committee member Mueen Al-Kazemi said, “The Ministry of Finance is responsible for preparing the draft budget law from the operational side, while the Ministry of Planning is responsible for the investment side.”
Al-Kazemi, a representative of the Al-Fateh Alliance, continued, “The projects prepared by the Ministry of Planning include ongoing, new, and lag projects.”
He pointed out, “A review took place a few days ago for the project, in the presence of representatives of the relevant ministries and the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers.”
Al-Kadhimi expects that “the coming days will witness the presentation of the project in the Council of Ministers in order to transfer it to the House of Representatives,” and it is not excluded that “this will happen before the end of this week, which is the last in the current legislative season.”
And he reported, “The arrival of the law during the current week will prompt Parliament to cancel its recess and postpone it until the budget legislation is completed in all stages, which include the first and second reading and voting.”
And Al-Kazemi believes, “The possibility of some discussions and divergence of views on the law, but we will eventually reach approval so that the budget takes its way to implementation as soon as possible.”
And he stated, “The weightings indicate that the amounts of the law will reach 130 trillion dinars, and we are keen to have a role for the government in reducing unnecessary spending and seriously thinking about non-oil revenues such as taxes and customs.”
Al-Kadhimi spoke of “an effort to reduce the fiscal deficit, which is expected to reach 10 trillion dinars.”
And he stressed, “A large part of the allocations will go to securing salaries for the next year, to allocate a significant amount of about 6 trillion dinars for social care.”
Al-Kazemi stressed, “The importance of Parliament taking into account the ministerial platform that it voted on when granting confidence to the government of Muhammad Shia’a al-Sudani, especially in terms of advancing the agricultural, health and infrastructure sectors, and supporting the economic and development reality.”
He noted, “Parliament will review the draft that it will receive from the government and hold discussions with some important ministries and sectors to come up with an important conviction before approving the budget.”
Al-Kadhimi expresses his “hope that the law will be finalized at the beginning of next year, in order to give a role to ministries and institutions with serious work.”
And he went on to say that “the delay in the budget in previous sessions had a negative impact on the executive performance, especially with regard to the implementation of service projects that topped the Sudanese ministerial curriculum.”
Al-Kazemi pointed out, “The political consensus between the blocs will encourage the speedy approval of the budget in parliament, in a way that prevents large differences, especially regarding the allocations of the Kurdistan region or the provinces.”
It is estimated, “The period needed by the House of Representatives in order to approve the budget after its arrival from the government by more than a month in a few days, and the political consensus will play a positive role in this matter.”
Al-Kadhimi concluded, “Parliament hopes that there will be a serious investment of the financial abundance that resulted from the rise in oil prices, by employing it in the appropriate fields.”
For his part, another member of the committee, Mustafa Al-Karawi, stated that “the House of Representatives has not received, until now, the budget law from the government.”
Al-Karawi, a representative of the Ishraqa Canon bloc, continued, “Everything that is raised about amounts of revenue, expenditures, or deficits are just leaks that are not official.”
He pointed out, “The Parliamentary Finance Committee hopes that the law will arrive before the end of this week, which witnesses the end of the current legislative term.”
Al-Karawi explained, “The budget is an issue related to all the lives of citizens, as there are many categories waiting for it, such as holders of higher degrees, contract employees, and first graduates.”
And Al-Karawi concluded, “If Parliament does not receive the budget before the eighth day of this month, it will enter a legislative recess that extends to 30 days, after which it will resume its work.”
The Prime Minister, Muhammad Shia’ al-Sudani, had chaired a meeting a few days ago on the budget, and instructed to expedite its submission in order to refer it to Parliament. LINK
The Total “Theft Of The Century” Amounted To 5 Billion Dollars, And The Real Amount Was Hidden Due To The Involvement Of Influential People
Posted On2022-12-05 By Sotaliraq Baghdad / Tamim Al-Hassan In light of the operations described as “political cleansing” to control important positions, questions began to arise about covering up corrupt people in previous governments.
Skeptics revealed the existence of intentions to hand over “corrupt” new positions, in addition to obscuring partners in the theft of the last century.
And those authorities revealed the existence of other “undeclared” amounts of the theft, which was considered the largest in the history of Iraq.
The information says that the stolen amounts may reach about twice what was announced, and the blackout was made due to the involvement of influential parties.
Half of the deadline that Prime Minister Muhammad al-Sudani revealed last week has now passed, in return for handing over only 5% of the money that was stolen from tax secretariats.
Al-Sudani had revealed, in a press conference on Sunday last week, that 180 billion dinars had been recovered out of about 4 trillion dinars stolen from taxes.
The prime minister spoke at the conference, in which he appeared surrounded by stacks of recovered money, that the most prominent suspect, Nour Zuhair, had been released on the condition that he return the rest of the money in his possession within two weeks.
According to what the Prime Minister said at the time, about 43% of the stolen money is in the possession of Nour Zuhair, and most of it is real estate.
Parliamentary bodies following the case revealed to (Al-Mada) the existence of information indicating that the amounts stolen from the tax secretariats are greater than those revealed by Al-Sudani.[/size]
Those authorities, who asked not to be identified, said that “estimates indicate that the entire amount is $5 billion (approximately 7.5 trillion dinars)”.
Those parties, a group of independent deputies, confirm that covering up the amount “came because of pressure from influential people involved in the theft.”
During the period before Al-Sudani announced the recovery of the amount, there were 3 different estimates that appeared to the public opinion of the total amount stolen.
Last month, former Finance Minister Ali Allawi appeared at an international conference and stated that the stolen amount of trusts is $12.5 billion.
And before that, Ihsan Abdul-Jabbar, who is the former oil minister and was assigned at the end of Mustafa Al-Kazemi’s government to run the Ministry of Finance after Allawi’s resignation, stated that the stolen amount is 800 million dollars.
Abdul-Jabbar, who is believed to have been subjected to sanctions from influential people after revealing the amount, returned to amend the figure after that to 2.5 billion dollars.
A few days ago, former MP Mishaan al-Jubouri called for an investigation into whether there was a link between Abdul-Jabbar’s dismissal from the Finance Ministry and a scandal of “theft of the century.”
Al-Jubouri said, wondering in a tweet on “Twitter”: “Are there any anti-corruption advocates who have the courage to investigate the manner and reasons that made Parliament vote to exempt Dr. Ihsan Abdul-Jabbar from managing the Ministry of Finance as an agency after directly revealing the theft of the century!? And if its hero, Nour Zuhair, had paid sums of money to personalities who adopted and insisted on a vote in parliament?
On the other hand, there are doubts among the coordination framework, some of which have begun to complain about “Al-Sudani’s disregard” of the Shiite bloc, that there is a deal to release those involved in the “theft of the century.”
Some parties within the “framework”, quoting a political advisor in one of the parties affiliated with the coalition, told Al-Mada that “the release of the accused is a reassuring message to the political parties involved in the theft.”
The consultant, who asked not to be named, indicated that: “There are differences within the coordination framework because of the management of the case of theft of the century, the method of combating corruption, and the presence of appointments for some of those accused of the recent changes in senior positions.”
The government, under pressure from parties within the coordination framework, began what was described as a “political cleansing” against employees who worked in the government of Mustafa Al-Kazemi, in preparation for replacing them with others from the Shiite coalition.
And the advisor stated that some Shiite parties “wondered if confronting the corrupt would be confined to the last government without addressing the rest of the files.”
And the day before yesterday, the leader of the Wisdom Movement, Ammar al-Hakim, was clear in revealing those doubts that revolve within the Shiite framework.
Al-Hakim said in a political gathering, touching on the issue of combating corruption, that it must: “Go back to the previous files and open them, and target the big heads, whoever they are and for any party they follow.”
And it seems that the targeted parties so far in corruption cases are the ones that were in the last government, with some few exceptions, such as the issuance of a recruitment order yesterday, for a former electricity minister whose name was not revealed.
During the previous three governments only, the prime ministers announced the existence of about 108 corruption files with multiple cases.
In the last days of Haider al-Abadi’s government, close associates of the latter revealed that he had sent 50 corruption files, which al-Abadi once described as “dangerous” to the Integrity Commission.
As for Adel Abdul-Mahdi, at the beginning of his assumption of office in 2019, he announced the existence of 40 corruption files, most notably oil smuggling, real estate, and border crossings.
And the last prime minister had revealed before that the existence of annual thefts in Iraq estimated at about $ 2 billion.
Abdul-Mahdi said in 2015, when he was Minister of Oil at the time, that: “The total budgets of Iraq are approximately $850 billion since 2003 and to this day (to the year the statement was issued), noting that: “Personal corruption, which some estimate consumes 3% of the total of these figures.” .
In the last Al-Kazemi government, the prime minister said at the time that there were 18 corruption files, and he added to a group of journalists in Baghdad: “If you look at its details, you will suffer a heart attack.”
On the other hand, the latest report of the Integrity Commission had revealed the involvement of 11,605 officials, including 54 ministers, in “corruption” during the past year.
In its annual report, the commission said that “the number of defendants in corruption cases (the nature of which was not specified) amounted to 11,605, and 15,290 charges were brought against them.”
And she added, “Among these 54 ministers and those of his rank (whose names were not specified), 101 charges were brought against them, and 422 defendants with special grades and general managers and those of their rank were charged with 712 charges.”
The authority stated that “632 convictions were issued, including one judgment against a minister, and 42 judgments against 23 people with special degrees, general managers and those of their rank.” LINK
