Session (4) Second Term / First Year

The Council of Representatives held on (21/7/2026) its fourth session of the second legislative term of the first legislative year of the sixth electoral cycle, chaired by Speaker Haibat Al-Halbousi, with (300) in attendance. The session included:

- The Speaker directed a review of the full details in presenting the Federal Board of Supreme Audit's report so that the Council's members could discuss it thoroughly, affirming that the Council of Representatives is proceeding toward correcting the Board's course, being a longstanding institution whose responsibility is preserving public funds.

- The President of the Board of Supreme Audit spoke about the oversight reports issued by the Board, comprising 630 pages in summary, including the commitment to auditing the budget and accounts of the Kurdistan Region and the final accounts of the Republic of Iraq for three years, noting that the final accounts since 2022 have not yet been sent to the Board, and that the Board has 3,500 employees distributed across Baghdad and the other governorates.

- The Board's President reviewed the work obstacles: the non-payment of the state treasury's share of public companies' profits for previous years, amounting to 26 trillion dinars; the file of encroachment on state property after the Board inventoried all properties and referred the file to the Ministry of Justice, with encroached properties belonging to the state amounting to 500 thousand properties; in addition to indemnification amounts under judicial decisions that have not been collected, amounting to 4 trillion dinars.

- The Board's report on the financial and banking sector included 339 financial reports focusing on the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank and government banks up to 2025, containing observations on: the state's continued primary reliance on oil resources without attention to economic fields such as agriculture, industry and tourism; the frequency of spending overruns beyond the revised allocations set under the current and investment federal general budget laws by most ministries and their affiliated formations; the accumulation of advance balances in spending units' final accounts despite the Ministry of Finance's directive to settle advances; a number of taxpayers who have not paid the income tax amounts owed by them; the failure of the General Tax Authority's branches to collect late fines from taxpayers subject to the profession tax; the inaccuracy of some information in the financial statements of taxpayers (scientific bureaus/fuel stations) recorded in those statements reflecting the taxpayer's commercial activity during the fiscal year; the failure to register many private fuel stations in the tax records at the Tax Authority, resulting in their owners not paying income taxes on their realized revenues from selling oil products; the failure to assess the income tax due on oil companies (licensing rounds) at 35% of the received remuneration fees — as the tax was assessed and paid by the companies accounting for income tax for the years (2018-2023) based on the profit shown in their final accounts, resulting in a difference between the amount calculated by the Ministry of Oil and the amounts paid by the companies of (388,721,000,000) three hundred eighty-eight billion and seven hundred twenty-one million dinars; and the weakness of the Iraq Fund for External Development's procedures in following up on collecting the loans granted to some countries (Yemen, Somalia, Mozambique, Uganda, Tanzania) despite being due for years, with no measures taken regarding them.

- The Speaker stressed that the Board of Supreme Audit must take firmer measures and work on addressing problems to prevent the phenomena of corruption and waste of public funds, noting that the Board's report does not rise to the level of the responsibility entrusted to it, demanding that the Board provide detailed answers by official letters to the questions posed to it, particularly regarding the volume of wasted funds in every ministry, government institution and elsewhere, documenting administrative and financial violations, the volume of spending and the details of their follow-up by the Board, explaining that public funds are a national trust that the Board of Supreme Audit must preserve.

- First Deputy Speaker Adnan Faihan stressed that the legislative authority will proceed with monitoring the procedures of all independent commissions and correcting their course of work during the current parliamentary term, noting the obligation of the Federal Board of Supreme Audit to a defined time ceiling for taking the necessary measures regarding the violations of ministries and government institutions identified in its report, and referring to the distribution of the Board's report to the concerned parliamentary committees.

- Deputy Speaker Farhad Al-Atrushi noted the importance of the Board dealing professionally and according to legal and constitutional contexts, especially as the core of the Board's work is tied to figures and tracking the course of fund disbursement, calling on the Board to present clear and comprehensive reports on many files, and affirming the importance of ratifying the final accounts before voting on the federal general budget law.

- The MPs' interventions during the session focused on demanding the evaluation of government sectors and their classification according to the violations contained in the reports; knowing the economic feasibility of spending large amounts on rehabilitating undeserving projects, as happened at the Baiji refinery; providing the Council with the profit-ratio schedules of the licensing round contracts related to oil fields and refineries; in addition to demanding oversight of the SOMO oil sales company's contracting file and its precise review; knowing the Board's role in the contracts of residential complex projects vis-à-vis investing companies and their economic feasibility; inquiring about the legal basis for the existence of audit committees affiliated with the former Prime Minister's office exerting pressure on the Board and clarifying its details; observations on the Board's reports, which the MPs described as inaccurate; demanding increased cooperation and coordination with the Council of Representatives and the importance of auditing government institutions professionally without focusing on some to the exclusion of others in order to preserve public funds — including the amounts spent on the Ministry of Electricity and reviewing the actual revenues realized by the General Customs Authority; and raising questions about the extent of identifying cases of fund disbursement outside the general budget law and the Board's failure to address the border crossings file in its report.

- The interventions included demanding the disclosure of the reasons for the decline of joint operation contracts at the Ministry of Transport to 15% currently, whereas in 2009 and 2010 they were at 100%; the number of files the Board referred to the Integrity Commission and the judiciary and knowing their outcomes; knowing the administrative investigation file; along with the reasons for not sending the final accounts on time.

- The Speaker directed addressing the concerned authorities to increase Holy Karbala Governorate's share of electric power during the Arbaeen pilgrimage in order to provide the necessary services for the visitors.

- Speaker Haibat Al-Halbousi directed hosting the Federal Board of Supreme Audit to hear their answers to all the inquiries raised in the session.

The session was then adjourned until next Thursday