Iraq moves toward 40-day public salary payment cycle, finance adviser says

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq's Prime Minister's financial adviser, Muzahir Mohammed Salih, said public sector and pension salaries are guaranteed and that the government considers itself morally obligated to pay them. He said any delay of 35 days or more in salary disbursements is unintentional and stems from a distribution method that prioritizes the most needy and most affected units. Salih said the government is restructuring spending on investment items under heavy fiscal pressure, but that the oil, gas, electricity and health sectors have been kept outside that scope. He noted that a 2026 budget has not been approved and that, without one, monthly payments would be made at one-twelfth of the previous year's current spending, in line with Article 13 of the 2004 Federal Financial Management Law. The Finance Minister has submitted a draft law to the Iraqi Parliament on external borrowing and grants, according to Salih. He added that budgets prepared since 2004 have repeatedly left investment allocations unspent, creating what he described as a "financial illusion."