the overall budget legal guidelines frequently consist of provisions that oblige the Kurdistan region to pay the dues for exported oil in quantities decided through the state Oil advertising company (SOMO), further to non-oil sales. The laws additionally stipulate that costs shall now not be paid to the place inside the occasion of non-compliance with these responsibilities, with violators being held legally dependable. no matter the repetition of this paragraph in maximum popular finances legal guidelines, the region has not devoted to resolving this issue, because it has been bypassed extra than once seeing that 2003. budget had been despatched to finance the area’s fees primarily based on political agreements, something that the legal texts are not able to cope with, as has happened in preceding and modern governments.
Federal superb courtroom selections
On February 15, 2022, the Federal preferrred courtroom issued its ruling in Case No. (59/Federal/2012) and its unified (110/Federal/2019) maintaining the Kurdistan nearby government’s Oil and gas regulation No. (22) of 2007 unconstitutional, and annulled it for violating the provisions of Articles (a hundred and ten, 111, 112, one hundred fifteen, 121, one hundred thirty) of the charter of the Republic of Iraq of 2005. The ruling obligated the nearby authorities to do the following:
1- quit all oil production from the oil fields in the location and different areas from which the Ministry of herbal sources extracted oil to the federal government, represented via the Ministry of Oil.
2- permitting the Ministry of Oil to workout its constitutional powers regarding oil exploration, extraction and export.
3- Reviewing all oil contracts concluded via the nearby authorities with outside events (international locations and corporations) and figuring out the financial rights bobbing up therefrom.
On February 21, 2024, the courtroom issued its selection in Case No. (224/Federal/2023) and its consolidated cases, which required the localization of salaries for all personnel of the area, consisting of retirement salaries and social presents, to reduce duplication of names and twin biometric registration. but, the area nonetheless lacks transparency concerning its oil and non-oil revenues, similarly to the lack of clarity in spending items.
economic demanding situations and violations
it’s far unfair for the vital government to undergo the burdens of oil-sharing contracts and unconstitutional overseas agreements concluded by using the vicinity with out its approval. The important authorities’s investment of the place is also a clear violation of the provisions of Article (12) of the Triennial widespread budget law. despite this, political agreements are nonetheless taken into consideration more potent than the legal guidelines in pressure, reflecting the dominance of political considerations over felony principles.
The Ministry of Finance has indicated the area’s failure to implement the provisions of the Triennial fashionable finances and the selections of the Federal courtroom. In 2024, the place’s percentage amounted to about eleven.765 trillion dinars out of the total real spending of 156 trillion dinars, at the same time as the region changed into financed with an quantity of 10.079 trillion dinars, regardless of its violation of the laws in force.
based on the standards of justice and equality, the following steps have to be taken to ensure compliance with the legal guidelines and their transparent implementation:
- Amending the provisions of the general budget, specially Article (12), to encompass felony ensures that oblige all events to enforce them.
- Unifying the revenues of the governorates, consisting of the region, within the central country treasury account.
- Strengthening the position of the Federal monetary Supervision Bureau in monitoring the items of the overall finances inside the place.
-Reviewing oil extraction and refining contracts and agreements related to Iraq’s sovereignty.
-making sure a honest distribution of earnings and wealth faraway from the have an impact on of political events, whether inside the center or in the region.
achieving these reforms will enhance the fairness of the distribution of country wide wealth and make sure admire for the laws, in a manner that serves the interests of all Iraqi residents without discrimination.