Modifying The Employee Salary Scale Between Political Bides and Realism In The Application

Mr. Hamed Al-Musawi

We have been working since the previous session of the Iraqi Council of Representatives with a group of economic experts to find a  viable economic model that allows adjusting the salary scale for state employees without burdening the public budget, which already suffers from a deficit, the current salary scale indicates a real discrepancy in salaries that shows the extent of injustice and injustice that falls on several segments of employees, as there are differences up to many times in favor of the salaries of some ministries and government institutions compared to the salaries of the majority of state institutions. Fair amendments to achieve justice away from courtesies and favoritism, but it finally turned unfortunately into media material for some fought by many deputies and officials, and the Iraqi employee became confused between those who confirm the progress of the amendment and those who deny.

The correct as we know that the Council of Ministers, which is the only body that can propose a legal formula for a new salary scale, and there must be a parliamentary vote on it to be a binding law and that any orientation in the current year’s budget does not exist at all, and the fact that the proposal is under study in the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers as a government agency in coordination with the Parliamentary Finance Committee, and there is no one now any agreed formula, and the subject is nothing but being within the framework of the study

Therefore, we would like in this regard to clarify to whom it may concern the following: –

1-  The last salary scale approved by the Iraqi Council of Representatives was issued in 2008 15 years ago, and any new salary scale will not be issued alone unless it is a table attached to the Civil Service Law, which has not been enacted so far and is still locked in the drawers of the Council of Representatives since 2015, and that the last three governments have repeatedly sent the proposed law since 2015 and more than once the government withdrew it due to differences about it or popular rejection, especially the proposal of the previous government during the days of the financial crisis.

2- The copies that were leaked to social networking sites are only a law proposal that was not sent by the government and no decision was issued on it at all, and it contained a proposal to raise the salaries of the lower grades needs large additional amounts that may contribute to increasing the budget deficit rate, estimated at more than 63 trillion dinars, according to the government, which means that it is impossible to implement it this year, especially since the recent government decisions that allowed the conversion of wages into contracts, the fixation of contracts, the appointment of top students and The certificates allowed the addition of more than 750,000 people to the functional state entity and increased its spending by about 20 trillion dinars, and that the salary paragraph in the budget increased from 42 trillion to 61 trillion.

3- Article 33 (first and second) of the draft federal civil service law, which was read a first reading in parliament, that the development of the salary scale will be a system issued by the Council of Ministers after it was a schedule attached to the Salaries Law No. 22 of 2008, any part of the law and now it will become part of a system issued by the Council of Ministers … This means that the Council of Ministers can adjust salaries as it pleases, up or down without restrictions or limitations, which is what the high-paid people object to, unlike the current Salaries Law, which allowed the Council of Ministers to amend only in the case of economic inflation, i.e. an increase in salary and not a decrease. But the new paragraph in the draft canceled that and will make the matter available to the Council of Ministers, whatever it wants and whatever the reasons.

4- It is possible to study the adoption of a multiple salary scale and not rely on one salary scale for employees, as there is an injustice not only at the level of ministries, but at the level of one ministry, and there is a need to review the job titles and the income rate of each job title, as the proposed salary scale needs to be reconsidered as it does not distinguish between job titles based on the ministry’s need for the required title and certificate, as it is assumed that there will be a salary scale for each job title so that the salary limit is guaranteed Lowest as well as highest, it is unreasonable that there is a large disparity in salary for the same job title between ministries, as there is still an opportunity to correct salaries within the budget, so that new financial allocations are not resorted to, as financial allocations can be reclassified to ensure the financing of employees within the ministries.

5- With the acceleration of the government to proceed with the automation of the financial and banking sectors, salaries, real estate, and companies, which will provide the government and its tax departments with the revenues achieved for individuals and groups, allowing rounded tax deduction (income tax varies from one person to another and according to his actual annual revenue), which is in force in most countries of the world, social justice has been achieved through the circular tax system, which needs two things: completing electronic automation for all economic joints and amending the tax law  Income No. (113) of 1982.