Gov’t trimming should cover persons – institutions – MP

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: A legislature in Iraq’s State of Law Alliance, led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, has called on Tuesday for the government’s trimming process to cover both “persons and institutions,” demanding that the trimming should cover excessive government offices belonging to the Council of Ministers. “The trimming must take place on both a horizontal and perpendicular basis, i.e. is must cover both institutions and persons, because we also have an excess of institutions in the Iraqi State,” Shirwan al-Waely told IraqiNews.com news agency. Waely called for the promulgation of a law that organizes such issues, “as there exists certain institutions that are linked with the Council of Ministers that must be covered by the trimming.” “The future of the political process shall witness complicated dossiers,” Waely expects.   He continued by expressing “regret that the Political Leaderships had defined the Iraqi problem and left the citizens’ intentions aside, changing some political issues into personal issues.” Waely also called the political leaders to “leave aside their personal, sectarian and narrow-party interests and head forward towards a genuine national scheme.” Noteworthy is that Iraq’s Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki had sent a demand to the Parliament last Sunday, proposing the trimming down of his Cabinet from 43 to 29 ministries. Maliki’s call took place after the end of his 100-day period to evaluate the activity of his Cabinet ministries, the beginning of which he announced on Feb. 28, 2011. This call followed the popular demonstrations that demanded reform and an end to corruption, along with the improvement of public services in different fields. SKH (TI)/SR   436