Daryan Saman – Activist The salaries of public employees in the Kurdistan Region, which are both a constitutional entitlement and a legitimate financial right, have been turned into the greatest political bargaining chip in post-2003 Iraq. Today, the people of the Kurdistan Region are being crushed under the endless power struggle between Erbil and Baghdad, becoming victims of a never-ending political game in which the livelihoods of more than a million people have been reduced to instruments of partisan rivalry and political power. In the Kurdistan Region: A Manufactured Crisis The problem in the Kurdistan Region is not merely a shortage of financial resources. The real crisis lies in governance and transparency. Corruption and Ghost Employees The existence of thousands of ghost employees and so-called “double salary” recipients has drained the public budget and left the Kurdistan Regional Government trapped in a perpetual, self-inflicted financial crisis. Whenever Baghdad requests a verified payroll list, the Kurdistan Region treats the demand not as an opportunity to reform and clean up the system, but as an act of political pressure. Lack of Transparency To this day, revenues from oil exports and border crossings are not deposited in full into the public treasury. This lack of transparency has provided Baghdad with a powerful justification for withholding the salaries of public employees. In Baghdad: Starvation as a Political Pressure Tactic Instead of dealing with the Kurdistan Region as part of Iraq’s federal system, the Iraqi government has pursued a policy of political control. Using Salaries as a Tool of Submission Baghdad has turned public salaries into a bargaining tool to pressure the Kurdistan Region over disputes concerning oil, constitutional authority, and broader political disagreements. Collective Punishment Under Iraq’s Budget Law, salaries are a legally protected entitlement. In practice, however, Baghdad uses arguments such as untransferred domestic revenues or incomplete financial audits to punish ordinary citizens who have no responsibility for the political disputes between Erbil and Baghdad. The Reality on the Ground Repeated Salary Delays Over recent years, salaries have repeatedly been delayed for months or paid only after deductions. These disruptions have severely damaged the local economy and turned the purchase of basic necessities into a daily struggle for countless families. The “Banking” (Localisation ) of Salaries The issue of salary localisation—transferring salary payments through the banking system—has become one of the most widely discussed topics in the media. Although this is fundamentally an economic reform intended to modernise and regulate salary payments, both Erbil and Baghdad have handled it in such a way that citizens have once again been left caught between the banking systems of the Kurdistan Region and the federal government. Conclusion: Until When? Public salaries are the livelihood of the people. Under no circumstances should they be used as political instruments. Resolving this crisis requires: 1. The Kurdistan Regional Government: to provide full transparency regarding its domestic revenues as quickly as possible and to put an end to corruption, ghost employees, and financial mismanagement, thereby removing Baghdad’s justifications for withholding salaries. 2. The Federal Government in Baghdad: to abandon the policy of using people’s livelihoods as a means of political pressure, because salaries are about human lives—not political competition. The essential question remains: Do the lives of ordinary citizens hold any real value for either side, or are people merely numbers in their political calculations? Until citizens are treated as partners in the nation rather than as bargaining chips, and until salaries are protected as a fundamental human right, this endless political game will continue