January 12, 2010
Reason for delaying the budget approval is not political, MP says.
An Iraqi Parliament member from the Iraqi Alliance denied on Tuesday any political motives that might be behind delaying the vote on the budget, as some members believe.
"There are no political motives beyond delaying the approval of 2010 budget, and all political blocs agreed on approving the budget after being well studied and discussed," MP Mohammed Naji, reiterating that "the motives behind delaying the budget's approval were to be studied carefully without loading it any additional funds, in order to balance out the needs of the Iraqi people. "
Naji said: "the political blocs demanded to increase the proportion of the provinces because the allocated amount doesn't fit with the size of the projects, and they proposed to allocate an amount, deducted from the budget of the ministries, of 10-20 % and up to 50% from the investment budget, while some blocs called for allocating one dollar for every oil barrel extracted from the provinces. "
"Many provincial councils said that the amounts allocated for the regions' development are few and do not satisfy the needs of the provinces and they expressed their rejection of the budgets allocated to them because they were not enough," pointing out that "the Immigration and displaced committee requested to increase the allocations of the Ministry of Immigration and the Educational Committee also demanded to increase the allocations of the Ministries of Education and Higher Education, "assuring that" all those things led to delay the adoption of the budget so far. "
The head of the Finance Committee in the Iraqi Parliament Alaa Sadoun confirmed that "The main reason for not adopting the budget is the quorum which was not completed in the previous meetings of the Parliament, in addition to political reasons".
She was Surprised for "the link made between the budget issue and the Electoral behavior law that the Parliament can extend for one month to approve on the electoral law." She added that such link is politically motivated, and it's purpose is to delay the adoption of the budget. "
Saadoun from the Iraqi Accordance Front assured to that "the federal budget for 2010 is ready to be voted on after its first and second reading and discussion inside the Parliament."
Sadoun explained that "the biggest obstacle that prevents the adoption of the budget is the lack of the quorum in the meetings which will affect negatively on the budget because if it was not approved during this month, it will be delayed to the seventh month of this year until a new government is found. "
They pointed out that "the adoption of the budget will affect the investment projects and the development of the regions, because spending on projects will decrease for ongoing projects while the new projects will be stopped until the budget is approved."
The Kurdistan Alliance bloc confirmed its support for the quick adoption of the budget as soon as possible.
MP Abdullah Saleh, a member in the Kurdistan Alliance, said that:
"Although there are some notes on 2010 budget, but the Kurdistan Alliance stresses on the need for quick approval," adding that "the observations have been modified by the Finance Committee, in addition to other subjects that the blocs agreed upon, stressing that the political and electoral goals are the main reason behind the adoption of the budget. "
Saleh refused to "link between the budget's approval and any other law, because the budget is importatnt for the citizens, services and projects more than any other law that may serve certain destinations."
Noteworthy here is that the Federal budget was read for the first and second time, and the Finance Committee's final report was submitted on Monday after the end of the amendment and after specifying the amounts that were allocated for the Supreme Judicial Council and the Iraqi parliament budgets . It is expected to be voted on next week, according to the statement of Sami Atrushi, member financial committee.
"The Finance Committee finished the necessary amendments on the federal budget and the Commission has submitted its latest report to the Presidency of the Parliament after specifying the allocations of a number of institutions, including the Parliament and the Supreme Judicial Council," Atrshi said.
He assured that "the vote on the 2010 budget will be next week after the parliament members check it for the last time
nahrain.com
