Baghdad paper reveals salaries of top 10 state officials

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: A Baghdad newspaper on Tuesday uncovered the salaries of the top 10 state officials, with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani taking the lead with an annual salary of $700,000. “The control authorities in the state do not have any written legal texts that specify the salaries of state officials as their offices undertake setting the value of those salaries, appropriations and social privileges,” the independent Al-Aalam (World) newspaper said in a report, quoting a high-ranking state official as saying. “The money received by those 10 senior officials, in light of information provided by the officials’ offices, could be much less than what is actually spent, due in large part to the absence of mechanisms to verify the top state people’s payments,” added the paper. “The anti-corruption board does not have any accurate data about the upper political strata’s expenses simply because those persons’ salaries are outside the parameters of any law,” the board chief, Raheem al-Ekeili, was quoted by the paper as saying. Talabani’s monthly salary is 75 million Iraqi dinars, which make 900 million dinars (roughly $700,000) annually, while the two vice presidents’ annual salaries hit 720 million dinars ($600,000), the paper said. The prime minister’s monthly salary is 36 million dinars, making an annual sum of 432 million dinars ($360,000), while the monthly salaries of the two deputy prime ministers is 17 million dinars, it added. AmR (S)/SR 1