Iraqi Govt Continues To Fail In Spending Development Budgets

Iraq’s parliament is discussing the new 2024 budget which is part of a larger three year bill for spending that was passed last year. A professor from Basra posted on social media that the government remains abysmal at spending its investment money.

 

Economics Professor Nabil al-Masoumi posted on Facebook the figures for how much or little ministries and provinces have expended of their development budgets. Both remain at very low rates which has been true for the last two decades.

 

Foreign Affairs, Defense, Labor, Planning, Agriculture, Environment, Displacement and Communications spent 1% or less of their investment budgets. That was followed by 2% by Trade and 4% by Culture.

 

The governorates were far better compared to those numbers but still mostly low. Diwaniya was last in expenditures at 5%. Then came Babil at 17%, Maysan at 18%, Diyala at 20%, Muthanna at 24%, Karbala at 27% and Basra at 36%. Ninewa did the best job with 62% of its development money being allocated.

 

This has been a problem since Iraq regained its sovereignty after the 2003 invasion and there are many causes. For one Baghdad relies upon a paper driven bureaucracy. There are few experienced officials that can deal with spending and signing contracts since most gain their jobs through political patronage and are not qualified for their positions. Another factor is that most decisions from the smallest to the largest require the authorization of a minister or sometimes the premier. All of these mean the government works at a snail’s pace and much of its money goes unspent as a result.

 

Not only that but the officially published numbers may also be wrong. In the past the United States found that Iraq counted money appropriated as spent whether it was used or not. There is no real transparency about how the money is actually used. The result is the Iraqi public suffers through power outages, the lack of clean water and more. Ultimately this is another failure of the elite who are not interested in the general welfare of their country.

 

SOURCES

 

Al Mada, “The Framework falls into the trap of the tripartite budget: We will not vote on the 2024 schedules before the amendment,” 5/28/24