SULAIMANI (ESTA) – The Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Minister of Finance Awat Sheikh Janab said “he is not aware” of the revenue generated from oil sales, raising concerns about the KRG’s monopoly of public revenue and lack of transparency.
Sheikh Janab refuted claims by the KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani who said the ministry is aware how oil revenues are spent.
Barzani said during a press conference in Erbil that nearly half of the revenue generated from oil exports in the Kurdistan Region will go to the oil production companies.
Minister of Finance Awat Sheikh Janab “is aware” that the KRG spends 41% of oil revenues for salaries and 43% of the revenue will go to the oil companies, Barzani said during a press conference in Erbil.
Speaking to a media outlet affiliated to his party, KRG’s Minister of Finance refuted Barzani, saying “We are only aware of a report prepared by Deloitte [an international auditing firm] and an amount of $350 million which is deposited to the bank account of Finance Ministry.”
The KRG has been developing oil and gas resources independently of the federal government, and in 2007 entered its own law that established the directives by which the Region would administer these resources.
KRG crude is exported through a pipeline that runs from Iraq’s Kirkuk region to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.
