The reasons go beyond allocations to the governorates. Al-Maliki challenged the 2024 budget timeline.

In an interview with Al-Sumaria News, Maliki said that “the objection to the 2024 budget is not the lack of financial allocations to the provinces, but the existence of fundamental illegalities and constitutional violations,” and said that “based on these irregularities, he appealed against the budget.”

But Maliki has questions about the internal rules of the federal court. “Because no citizen or member of parliament may oppose the budget law, only the government, ministries and governors can do so,” he said, calling the matter “unconstitutional because it wastes the right to litigation guaranteed to every Iraqi citizen and the right to defend public funds.”

Last Monday, the House of Representatives completed the vote on the revised schedule for the 13th year of the Federal Budget Law No. 2024 and its annexed schedules (A/B/C/D/E/F).

Rep. Maliki confirmed that he did not “have a vote” at the negotiating table and called on the governors to “follow up on the proposal to increase provincial allocations for the development of the regions, pointing out that there is a clear and binding text in the budget law, but it is not implemented by the central government.”

He continued, “Many provinces complain about weak liquidity and lack of disbursements, which will negatively impact their projects and may lead to their cessation.”

According to the announcement made by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Sudani last Sunday, the 2024 budget amounted to 211 trillion dinars and employee salaries in 2024 amounted to 62 trillion dinars, while the 2023 budget was 199 trillion dinars and employee salaries amounted to 59 trillion dinars.

Several provincial councils have complained about a decrease in financial allocations compared to the previous year and have expressed their rejection of their provincial share in the 2024 budget table.

Al-Sudani said that in 2024, budget revenues are expected to be 144 trillion and 336 billion dinars, respectively, expenditures are expected to be 210 trillion and 936 billion dinars, respectively, and deficits are expected to be 63 trillion and 599 billion dinars, respectively.

“In 2023, the total amount of investment allocations for local government projects in the provinces was 10.633 trillion dinars, and we provided 3.333 trillion dinars of funds based on the basic requirements of the provinces,” Al-Sudani said, adding: “The remaining 7.333 trillion dinars are in the allocation trust account,” which is at the disposal of the provincial governments.

As for the report released by the Finance Committee on the 2024 budget timetable, it highlights many paragraphs related to the changes that have taken place in the current timetable compared to the past 2023.

On June 12, 2023, the Iraqi Parliament voted on the federal budget law for 2023, 2024 and 2025, which is the first time in the country’s history in terms of the size of the budget and the size of the fiscal years, respectively, of 197 trillion and 828 billion dinars, and a fiscal deficit of 63 trillion dinars.

According to the Finance Committee report, the biggest change in employee remuneration in the Popular Mobilization Forces, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Higher Education was in the Ministry of Education, which amounted to 700 billion dinars, followed by the Ministry of Higher Education, Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Interior, which each increased by 600 billion dinars, and then the Ministry of Health and the Popular Mobilization Forces, which each increased by 400 billion dinars, possibly due to the hiring of new positions.

As shown in the table, non-oil revenues are expected to increase from $1.7 trillion in 2023 to $2.7 trillion in 2024.

The Finance Committee recommended that the Iraqi government “transfer 2 trillion dinars to increase the regional development budget,” but this recommendation is not binding on the federal government.