MESOP : NEWS ABOUT HALABJA – Economic crisis in Iraqi Kurdistan a pretext to neglect assistance to Halabja: governor

HALABJA,— NRTTV – 13 June 2016 – The governor of Halabja said Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is using the economic crisis as a pretext to not provide assistance to the governorate. The Governor of Halabja, Abdullah Nawrolly, issued a statement on Sunday about the neglect of the governorate.

“When we began work, every side, especially the KRG, promised to help and that they would be by our side to reconstruct and develop the governorate,” Nawrolly said in the statement. “We wanted to put Halabja on a higher level, we wanted to change the governorate to a modern one and we had a plan to develop Halabja. Then the economic crisis happened and the KRG is using this as an excuse to not provide a minimum of assistance to the governorate.”

“The Halabja governorate was composed more than a year ago but we need 300 employees for the governorate,” Nawrolly stated. “The KRG did not recruit any one for the governorate and the KRG did not provide a budget for Halabja.”

“We asked the Ministry of Finance and Economy a long time ago to proceed in order to open an accounting and reserve branch to complete the organization of the Halabja Governorate but there has still been no response,” the governor continued. “In September 2015 we gathered the political parties to create the governorate’s council and it is important to complete the organization of the governorate. There are political parties which are not helpful and block the creation of the council.”

The KRG decided to change the status of Halabja from a district to a governorate more than a year ago but little change has been accomplished. www.mesop.de