The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) announced that it will begin paying six months of unpaid leave compensation to retired employees who left their posts earlier this year.
According to a statement from the KRG Ministry of Finance and Economy, the payments will be made in phases based on a decision by the Council of Ministers and under the directive of the finance minister. The ministry confirmed that the recipients had been officially retired since the start of the year but had not yet received their due compensation.
The ministry noted that several official requests had been submitted to the federal finance ministry in Baghdad, asking for the Kurdistan retirees to receive the same benefits as those in other Iraqi provinces. However, because Baghdad has not yet approved this, the KRG decided to fund the payments from its own regional revenues.
A financial expert in Erbil explained that the payments represent the accumulated leave balances of retired employees who were unable to take their earned leave before retirement. The total amount corresponds to the remaining days of their service.
He added that since there are three different categories of retirees this year, the number of recipients and total funds are substantial, prompting the ministry to distribute the payments gradually.