Speaking to NRT on Monday night, March 19, Iraqi government’s spokesman Saad Hadithi said Baghdad is abided by paying a portion of employees’ salaries while the rest would be covered by the Kurdish government from its oil sales.

“The portion sent to [the Kurdistan Region] with the region’s oil sales is enough to provide full salaries of the Kurdistan Region’s employees,” Hadithi said.

“Our agreement with Erbil is that salaries of the Kurdistan Region’s employees must be paid in full,” he added.

Iraqi government has provided the Kurdistan Region with more than 317 billion Iraqi dinars (($267 million) to pay salaries of public servants from the KRG ministries including the Peshmerga ministry.

KRG Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs said on Sunday that 900 billion Iraqi dinars is needed to provide full salaries of public servants, while only 590 billion IQD is needed to pay employees’ salaries with payment withholding system.

Salaries for KRG employees have been plagued by delays since 2014 and Kurdish authorities have repeatedly said they cannot make payments due to the crises affecting the region.

KRG announced in early 2016 that it would cut government employee salaries by 15 to 75 percent, depending on position and salary bracket, as part of austerity measures to deal with the ongoing economic crisis.

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