Where is the budget? Iraq faces significant delays

Since the establishment of our modern state in 1921, we have never witnessed such a delay in approving the annual budget, except after 2003. The successive governments have complied with Bremer's directives, which were entirely contrary to the principles of government accounting and violated governmental spending controls. This is especially true regarding granting ministers powers inconsistent with unified governmental functional performance, starting from appointment powers, through violating the controls and conditions of that appointment, to the salaries and allowances of government employees. It is as if the year of occupation erased what public finance had settled for nearly a century, including not adhering to the timelines for preparing sub-budgets and the general budget, not submitting spending tables and final accounts, and the innovation of spending according to the 1/12 ratio, and finally, approving multi-year composite budgets, as if the country emerged from nothing without a solid foundation and spending controls that were a model for other countries.

Despite all reservations, I cannot help but accuse many of those who undertook government work of ignorance, because ministerial budgets and public sector company budgets were submitted before September or early October of each year to the Ministry of Finance. Ignorance is also surrounded by corruption, despite its reservations. It was behind the fear of presenting the final accounts because they violated the principles and rules of government spending, and they included fictitious projects and activities that are unbelievable or even overlooked their exorbitant and burdensome costs for the budget of this department or the allocations of that institution, or expenses of a body that does not accept interpretation.

So, after all that, where is the budget for 2026, and we are in May, and the Council of Representatives is in its session, and the departments are waiting for the release of funds to start spending for development purposes or consumer updates, or to add something new to an activity that serves population growth. The silence of the Council of Representatives regarding the behavior of successive government cabinets concerning the neglect of annual budgets is a constitutional violation. The Federal Court should have also reacted to every serious constitutional breach, just as the Supreme Judicial Council reacted to the violation of constitutional timelines regarding the election of the three presidencies, and to put an end to this judicial laxity, which Iraqis consider the protector of the country's prestige and the guardian of its constitution. Article 57 of the constitution and the internal regulations prohibit the Council of Representatives from going on its legislative recess before approving the annual budget. So where are you, Council of Representatives, and where is the budget, with the middle of the year approaching?