Kurds prefer decentralization in running their region

IRAQ / IraqiNews.com: Kurdish lawmakers agree that the decentralization system is the best model to run Iraq’s Kurdistan region, underling that centralization encourages financial corruption, bureaucracy, and hampers implementing projects. Head of the Green List Koustan Mohamed said her list has rejected the draft law presented by the Kurdish government to the Parliament last month. “The provincial councils law envisages a lot of centralization,” she told IraqiNews.com. “The draft law presented by the government envisages a lot of centralization, while the one presented by the provincial councils has much more decentralization. We, a legal committee in the Kurdish Parliament, support the decentralization administration not for the provincial councils only but also for the regions and districts too,” Mohamed noted. President of Iraq’s Kurdistan region Massoud Barzani visited the Kurdish Parliament last week in an attempt to render the law a success. According to information received by IraqiNews.com, the president discussed the bill and the parliament’s chairmanship and the legal committee clarified their opinion. She asserted the importance of not concentrating all powers in the federal government, explaining that the Sulaimaniya provincial council knows the city’s needs more than the Council of Ministers. “The administrative corruption increases when the power became more centralized,” she underlined. For his part, Nouri al-Talabani, an independent lawmaker, expressed his happiness for the most of the Kurdish lawmakers’ support to the decentralization system. “The provinces should have the right to map out their own plans in education, health and social fields,” al-Talabani said. Salar Baseera, law professor at the Law and Political Science Faculty at the Sulaimaniya University, said the provincial council in the democratic system needs decentralization because it works not to turn the federal government into a dictator and a bureaucratic authority. SH (S)/SR 1