Facts or claims? The mystery of operating expenses baffles lawmakers and finance officials.
Facts or claims? The mystery of operating expenses baffles lawmakers and finance officials.
12-7-2025
Information/Baghdad…
The statements of the member of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, Mustafa Sand, provoked the Ministry of Finance regarding the value of operational expenses, as he stated that the value of these expenses amounts to 8 trillion dinars, while the Ministry of Finance came out to deny this matter and confirm that its value is 6 trillion. However, the matter may look different after one of the economic experts refuted it when he presented figures that speak about the value of the actual spending for each of the spending categories related to salaries, as his presentation differed from what the Ministry of Finance presented in its last statement regarding monthly expenses.
MP Mustafa Sand said in a clarification via social media, which was followed by Al-Maalomah, that “the actual amount of spending since the beginning of this year until last September for the federal budget has reached 48 trillion dinars as salaries and support for the rest of the institutions, while the ministry’s expenses for care related to retirement and end-of-service bonuses amounted to more than 12 trillion, in addition to 2 trillion going to the Kurdistan Region, as well as the disbursement of an amount of 4.7 trillion dinars for social welfare, as the total of these amounts exceeds 66 trillion dinars, meaning that the result of dividing these amounts by the past eight months until September amounts to 8 trillion dinars as salaries that must be paid monthly.”
He pointed out that “there are amounts that were not included in the aforementioned 66 trillion, such as electricity funds, licensing round companies, and other obligations that must be paid.”
For its part, the Ministry of Finance explained in a statement received by Al-Maalomah that “the total salary expenditures, which include (employees, retirees, and the social protection network), have an actual ceiling of (6) trillion dinars per month, which is a figure that corresponds to the rate of revenues achieved. As for the amount that the MP referred to (2 trillion dinars) and considered a deficit, this interpretation is inaccurate from an accounting and financial point of view; as this amount actually represents the oil revenues achieved and allocated to finance the salaries of the following month, and it is part of the normal cash flow cycle to strengthen the ministry’s balance, and not a financial deficit as portrayed.”
Meanwhile, economist Nabil Al-Marsoumi explained that “the financial accounts published on the Ministry of Finance’s website up to September 2025, which detailed the salaries paid during the first nine months of this year, show that employee compensation amounted to 45.563 trillion dinars, while grants, wages and salaries amounted to 3.604 trillion dinars, in addition to pension salaries of 14.175 trillion dinars, as well as the salaries of full-time appointees, which reached 550 billion dinars, while the social protection network amounted to 4.263 trillion dinars.”
He pointed out that “the total salaries paid amount to 68.155 trillion dinars, meaning that the salaries paid monthly reached 7.572 trillion dinars, while the Ministry of Finance stated that the total salaries paid monthly amount to 6 trillion dinars.”
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