BAGHDAD (AFP) — Iraqi MPs are refusing to ratify the 2008 budget, a
parliamentary statement said, reflecting the deep political divisions still
crippling Iraq despite stuttering steps towards reconciliation.
Parliament speaker Mahmud Mashhadani called leaders of the various political
blocs to a meeting Monday to urge them to endorse the budget, saying the delay
was harming the interests of the Iraqi people, the statement said.
But the leaders refused to budge from their positions, according to the
statement issued late on Monday.
Eventually an exasperated Mashhadani agreed to ask Deputy Prime Minister Barham
Saleh and Finance Minister Bayan Jabr Solagh to appear before parliament for a
second time to explain the allocations in the 48 billion dollar budget, which
remains stalled three weeks into the new year.
Fadhila parliamentary leader Hasan al-Shimmari told Mashhadani his Shiite bloc
was unwilling to vote for the budget because it "does did not cater to the needs
of Iraqis and "there are unjustifiable allocations."
The head of the Sadrist bloc, Nassar al-Rubaie, said his MPs rejected the budget
because it did not give enough money to teachers nor did it resolve the issue of
monthly food rations to citizens, which are being reduced.
Most of the unease, however, stems from a decision to allocate 17 percent of the
budget to the oil-rich autonomous Kurdish region and on top of that to pay for
its peshmerga security force from the national defence budget.
Osama al-Nujaifi of the Iraqi National List led by former prime minister Iyad
Allawi, called for substantial changes to the budget before it is put to the
vote, saying the government had not given any final financial statements for the
past several years.
"Kurdistan's share of 17 percent is not fair and the peshmerga allocations
should rather be taken from Kurdistan's allocations, not from the defence
ministry," Nujaifi said.
Mahmud al-Azzawi of the independent Arab bloc agreed. "There are many problems
with the budget, including the amount of allocation for the Kurdistan region and
the peshmerga," he said.
Fuad Masoom, head of the Kurdish alliance bloc, insisted that the peshmerga be
paid from the defence ministry budget.
MP Iyad al-Samarrai, head of parliament's finance committee and MP for the
powerful Sunni National Concord Front, accused the government of evading
questions about the budget and of not being accountable for its spending.
Another MP, Haider al-Ibadi, head of parliament's investment and economy
committee, said the budget "does not give a clear strategy of how unemployment
and poverty will be overcome."
After first threatening to put the budget to the vote without further
discussion, speaker Mashhadani agreed to go back to the cabinet to ask for
financial statements for the past few years and for Saleh and Solagh to come
before the house again to be grilled on their figures.
The deadlock over the budget is a reflection of the deep divisions also
surrounding the draft oil and gas law, which has been stalled before parliament
for more than a year due to squabbling over the revenues from the country's rich
crude reserves.
In a rare gesture of reconciliation, however, Shiite and Sunni MPs on January 12
unanimously passed a law allowing certain ex-officials of Saddam Hussein's Baath
party to return to public life.
US President George W. Bush hailed the passing of the Justice and Accountability
Law as an "important step toward reconciliation."
In a visit to Baghdad last week, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice praised
the Iraqi parliament for passing the long-stalled bill but urged more political
progress from Maliki's government.
"There is still a lot of work to be done," she said.
