Financial and economic expert Mustafa Akram Hantoush warned today, Friday, against Iraq remaining a captive to governmental appointments, leading to a significant increase in government expenditures within the budget. Hantoush stated to "Baghdad Today" that "there is a very large increase in the volume of government expenditures, and this increase is mainly due to paying the salaries of state employees." He explained that "the recent appointments were made without any study or planning, which is why there was a significant rise in expenditures that greatly impacted the budget and increased the financial deficit."
Hantoush pointed out that "the Iraqi government needs to genuinely activate the private sector in various fields to be on par with the government sector." He warned against "Iraq remaining a captive to appointments and the continuous increase in expenditures during the next phase." He emphasized that "liberation can be achieved through activating the private sector, providing job opportunities in that sector, and ensuring the rights of workers in that sector, so that there is a significant inclination towards it, similar to the government sector among unemployed graduates and others."
Yesterday, Thursday, member of the parliamentary legal committee, MP Salem Ibrahim Al-Anbaki, confirmed that Iraq has reached a peak of bureaucratic overreach, threatening the government treasury, which depends 93 percent of its revenues on the sale of crude oil.
