The delegation, which was led by KRG Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani, said that the two sides officially signed a document agreeing to prepare reports for the federal Ministry of Finance on implementation, NRT said in a report.
“The Kurdistan Region’s delegation showed its readiness to make all facilities and preparations for federal financial supervision and to perform their duties within the framework of the mechanism they agreed on,” it said.
While news of an agreement would be welcome, the process has been littered with hang-ups over implementation.
On March 31, the Council of Representatives passed Iraq’s annual budget, which included a financial agreement between Erbil and Baghdad.
The KRG is supposed to receive 9.5 trillion Iraqi dinars ($6.5 billion) from the budget, which will be disbursed in monthly increments, in return for submitting 250,000 barrels of crude oil per day to Iraq's oil marketer SOMO for export and a portion of the income derived from customs duties at international border crossings with Iran and Turkey.
The KRG has sent no oil or customs duties to Baghdad and in response the federal government has not resumed cash transfers to Erbil.
Those budget transfers would theoretically enable the KRG to pay full public sector salaries. For more than a year it has either not paid public servants or cut their salaries by nearly a quarter, leading to widespread frustration among the Region’s middle class.
Reporter's code: 50101