The Nineveh Provincial Council discussed four important topics for the upcoming stage on Monday January 27 in session No. 25 with full quorum, chaired by head of the council.
The first topic discussed was a report from the Governorate Diwan submitted by the Administrative Affairs - Property Department, regarding the allocation of lands for affiliates, employees, civilians, and security personnel in the Ministry of Interior.
The second topic was the design of the new Ghazlani City Road, and the third topic focused on employees of the Ministry of Water Resources who were granted compulsory leave to exempt them from appointment controls for contractual job grades allocated to Nineveh Province within the 2024 budget.
Following the discussion, Ahmed Al-Hasoud, Chairman of Nineveh Provincial Council, directed the council to contact the Prime Minister's Office to request appointments with deletion and creation of grades, similar to other provinces.
In the final topic before the session ended, Brigadier General Khaled Awni, Director of Civil Status, Passports, and Residence, was invited to clarify the directorate's work and discuss ways to improve services for citizens.
The Nineveh Provincial Council was divided into two factions. The first was the Future Nineveh Alliance, which successfully elected the heads of the administrative units holding 16 out of 29 total seats. This faction comprises the Coordination Framework forces, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan PUK bloc, Sunni members, and three minority quota members.
The United Nineveh Alliance and the Kurdistan Democratic Party KDP bloc, holding a combined 13 seats, opted to boycott council meetings.
On October 8, 2024, the provincial council resumed its sessions after a 3-month pause due to disagreements between winning blocs regarding the appointment of heads of administrative units.
On November 24, the Nineveh Council approved the petrodollar budget, totaling 1.1 billion dinars IQD (USD730,000), as council member Mohammed Jassim Kakai informed KirkukNow.
According to the law of provinces not organized in a region No. 21 of 2008, as amended, there is a petrodollar budget within the financial resources of some provinces, which consists of USD5 per barrel (pb) of crude oil produced in the province, in addition to 5 USD/pb refined in the province's refineries, and $5 for every (150) cubic meters of natural gas production in the province.
Nineveh Province is considered to be a rich agricultural area, according to the Central Statistics Agency, 40 percent of the population live in rural areas and is expected to be the first wheat production in Iraq as in previous years.
*This story has been produced as part of the 'Budget is Your Right' initiative, with support from the National Democratic Institute (NDI).
