Spokesperson for the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Jotiar Adil said on Wednesday, December 23, that the KRG cannot pay salaries to the Kurdistan Region’s public sector employees for the last two months in 2020 if the federal government does not send the Region’s funds.
During a press conference after a meeting of the KRG Council of Ministers, Adil said that the KRG has called for six months’ worth of salaries from the federal government as the cabinet incumbent Iraqi Prime Minister Kadhimi has sent two funds in seven months since its inauguration in May, NRT reported.
KRG has saved five months’ salaries in 2020 without determining any timeframe for repaying them and has fallen behind in paying other salaries on time and in full, as well as it withheld salaries for several months in the past few years under an austerity scheme.
The KRG and the federal government are engaged in a long-running dispute over financial entitlements and oil exports that has only grown deeper as economic conditions have deteriorated because of low oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic.
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