Civil servant employed per temporary contracts in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk call for reappointment and lawful privileges following their release in 2015 for lack of Petro-Dollar budget for oil producing provinces.
Tens of temporarily-employed contractors gathered in front of Kirkuk administration on September 14th and protested their release since 2015.
Marwa Mohammed, representative of temporary employed servants said 7,000 post graduates were temporarily employed in 2011 to be paid from Petro-Dollar budget; a special budget allocates 5 USD per oil barrel for oil producing provinces later it was changed to 5% of the marketing for one oil barrel.
They were released in 2015 as ministry of finance stopped paying the oil producing province due to war against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria ISIS, budget deficit and low revenues.
Mohammed said most of the released have turned into lecturers, employed via nepotism or found a job and "only 675 have no support from any party in order to be reappointed or employed permanently."
"Most of us have families and it was really unfair."
The five oil wells of Kirkuk have exported over three million barrels in August for 200 million American Dollars USD compared to $213 millions in July, Iraqi ministry of oil said.
Kirkuk has produced about 96,000 barrels a day, total 3,004,309 barrels in August, a slight decline compared 3,012,435 in July.
Kirkuk, Sept. 14th 2021- protests by temporary employed civil servants in Kirkuk calling for reappointment and their lawful privileges. KirkukNow
Ibrahim Mohammed, a protestor, said he served in directorate of roads and bridges of Kirkuk from 2011 up to 2015.
"In 2017, Petro-Dollar was resumed but only those had mediators were back to work. We want our rights we are deprived of," Mohammed angrily said.
KirkukNow has tried to get response of local authorities but none was ready to comment.
Jum'a Khidir, a contract-based civil servant, has served in Kirkuk grain silo four years. "I have also served six months for free. Now I am 41 so how can I find another job? I have no pension despite our public service and instead of appreciation we were fired."
Khidir said he has attended several protests and gatherings in vain. "Local officials tell us go to Baghdad which says solve your problem in your city."
The Iraqi parliament has obliged the Iraqi government to settle a bank account for oil producing province in order to receive their shares automatically.
Located 238 kilometers north of Baghdad, Kirkuk is an ethnically mixed province for 1.2 million Kurds, Arabs, and Turkmen, Muslims, Christians and Kaka'is. It has long been at the center of disputes between Baghdad and the Erbil.
The province misses proper utilities of power supply, drinking water, garbage collection, basic healthcare and proper education system, all the sectors badly hurt by corruption and long years of war and instability.
