Baghdad The Governor of Basra, Asaad Al-Eidani, confirmed that the new local projects that were approved for the city of Basra within the federal general budget law date back to the year 2019.

Al-Eidani said, in a statement to the National Iraqi News Agency (NINA), that “the implementation of projects in Basra has stopped due to the Coronavirus pandemic and the failure to approve the 2020 budget,” noting that “most of the new projects approved for Basra in the general budget law are for the year 2019”.

He added, “The package of new projects in 2021 has not been approved yet, because it has not been included by the Ministry of Planning, so the current work is limited to 2019 projects,” noting that: “After approving the general budget, the arrival of the first batch of them was delayed for nearly six months, but it was completed. The amount of 349 billion dinars owed to contractors has been disbursed, and the second will also be disbursed.”

On the allocations of the petrodollar project, the governor of Basra clarified that “the petrodollar project was approved within the budget law 2021, but the government appealed to the petrodollar funds, and the Federal Court has not yet considered the appeal.”

Regarding the work of foreign companies in Basra Governorate, Al-Eidani said that “the experience of Basra Governorate in implementing projects has succeeded due to its local companies, more than the presence of foreign companies that limited their work to oil fields.

Source: National Iraqi News Agency