The 5 and 10 thousand Iraqi dinars denominations disappeared
from the ATMs

These are the articles I discussed in today's My FX Buddies Podcast

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The 5 and 10 thousand dinars denominations disappeared
from the ATMs
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Recently, there have been cases that the citizen was not familiar with, since the spread of ATMs throughout Iraq, represented by the disappearance of small and medium groups (from 1000 to 10 thousand dinars), which may bring back to the scene the scene of mistrust between the public and private banks, precisely because of The latter's failure to provide all cash denominations in its ATMs.

Citizen B says: I (employee) “When I receive a message or a notification on my phone that my salary has been launched, I immediately go to the nearest ATM to withdraw the salary for the purpose of fulfilling my financial obligations that require cash.”

i added. For “Al-Sabah” that “the ATMs of the bank to which I settled my salary, are devoid of small and medium cash groups (1000 to 10 thousand dinars), and I do not know the reason, although withdrawing them as liquidity may differentiate among some who complain of the deterioration of their living conditions.”

And he added, "This case brings to mind the issue of citizens' trust in private banks, which has been shaky since the collapse of a number of them in previous years, which calls for a review of the issue of financial inclusion in the smallest details, especially the salary settlement clause."

For his part, the banker Hussein Najm believes that “these cases may occur in some private banks for accounting purposes or to facilitate the disbursement of the salary in the largest possible categories, and to facilitate filling the exchange with cash from those categories, as it will become lighter in weight when transferred.”

Negm pointed out that "this case can be explained by the fact that banks encourage the public to adopt a savings policy, which has been absent from the family economy scene since the nineties of the last century, or it may be one of the problems or challenges of settlement and the banking system in general."

In turn, the expert in economic affairs, Dr. Hussein Al-Khaqani, said that there is a source of individual financial waste, represented by the electronic payment card holders of employees and retirees, when a notification is received of the release of the salary, the card holder quickly resorts to receiving his salary in cash from the exchange offices minus the commission.

Al-Khaqani added, “Perhaps the most important reason for this is the lack of electronic payment card readers, which are supposed to be available at all official authorities and the private sector, to collect their debts, such as malls, large and small shops, even taxi drivers, stores selling vegetables and fruits, ovens, restaurants, and even traffic departments and the collection of water fees. Electricity, payment of transaction fees and tax collection.

He stressed that “the banking automation process in Iraq is deficient due to the imposition of electronic cash dealings on employees and retirees, in exchange for limiting cash withdrawal points to outlets and ATMs and not providing them in all shops and the aforementioned entities, which widens the cash gap between citizens and banks.”

After lifting immunity, former MPs leave Iraq

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Media reports indicated that former MPs have left Iraq for some neighboring countries, Europe or America for fear of being prosecuted after the immunities were lifted. A deputy in the dissolved parliament.

A report by Al-Araby Al-Jadeed website, which was monitored by (Iraq Today), stated that "the dissolution of the Iraqi parliament on the seventh of this October resulted in the lifting of the parliamentary immunity guaranteed by the constitution for hundreds of deputies, whose results showed the last legislative elections that were held on October 10, losing more than From 70 percent of them to their seats, which means that the ministerial committee charged with prosecuting corruption files by the caretaker government headed by Mustafa Al-Kazemi, will be able to investigate any of them.

The government talk before the elections, invoking the reason for the immunity granted to many of these representatives, was that it was impossible to investigate them, and the Iraqi constitution grants parliamentary immunity to members of the House of Representatives that lasts throughout the duration of the parliamentary session, which amounts to four years, and the judiciary is not entitled, according to this immunity, to prosecute deputies during this period, with the exception of Crimes related to the flagrante delicto.

Officials in Baghdad spoke on more than one occasion about the presence of more than 40 deputies whose names were mentioned in financial corruption cases after investigating officials who were arrested, most notably the Director of Public Retirement Ahmed Al-Saadi, the director of the “Key Card” company (smart card), Bahaa Al-Maamouri, and the head of The solution party, former head of the Red Crescent Society, Jamal Karbouli.

A government official in Baghdad, who asked not to be named, revealed that there are judicial files against at least 12 deputies in the dissolved parliament, including confessions of current detainees on corruption charges, who said that they provided deputies with sums of money in exchange for facilitating investment work, and others to stop legal procedures against them. According to the source, a deputy is also involved in blackmailing an official in exchange for not raising files related to him that involve crimes against public money, stressing that the special committee to follow up on corruption files headed by General Ahmed Abu Ragheef is expected to initiate recruitment procedures and arrest a number of them soon. The official indicated that the demise of the immunity of members of the dissolved parliament will facilitate raising the files of some former MPs, whether in the Integrity Commission, or in the Commission to investigate corruption cases, indicating that the follow-up of this file will be carried out in coordination with the judicial authority, which will have the final say in that by accreditation. on the available evidence.

Other sources confirmed that some of the deputies raised about corruption charges and issues left Iraq after announcing the results of the elections and making sure that their names were not among the winners, and that some of them left through Baghdad airport to various destinations, including Lebanon, Jordan, Iran, Turkey, and European countries, without being stopped. by the authorities.

Commenting on this, the independent candidate who won membership in the new parliament, Basem Khashan, explained that the end of the parliament’s immunity after the dissolution of parliament on October 7 gave the judiciary an opportunity to try members of the dissolved parliament, and currently there are fears that some of the accused may escape outside the country, and about the possibility of the parties’ defense And the powerful forces of former MPs accused of corruption, Khashan wondered: "We are waiting for the parties' position on that, so will they stick to them?"

In turn, former parliament member Adnan Al-Danbous confirmed that "people who have rumors and corruption cases are currently leaving the country, unfortunately," explaining, "only the judiciary can prevent the accused from traveling."

Danbos pointed out that "immunity has been lifted from the former parliamentarians, and they are now subject to the laws in force, and any case can be submitted to the courts for resolution," considering that public opinion "can be a pressing factor and an aid to taking legal measures against them," noting that quotas " It caused covering up many files related to MPs and former officials."

Officials estimate the value of the money wasted due to corruption since the US occupation of Iraq in 2003 at hundreds of billions, including more than 300 billion dollars smuggled out of the country. The Commission for Investigation into Corruption and Major Crimes Issues, which Al-Kazemi formed, also arrested officials and politicians on corruption charges, some of whom were subjected to judicial rulings.

Al-Kazemi had formed at the end of August 2020, a higher committee, with wide powers, headed by Lieutenant-General Ahmed Abu Ragheef, to open corruption files, investigate officials, and put a special force affiliated with the Counter-Terrorism Service under the command of the committee, which succeeded in arresting a number of officials and politicians.

And last April, Iraqi officials confirmed that investigations conducted by the governmental Anti-Corruption Committee showed the involvement of a number of members of the dissolved parliament and former officials in huge corruption deals. However, the request to lift the immunity was not granted.

The former Inspector General of the Ministry of Interior, Jamal Al-Asadi, said that the work of this committee is limited to looking into and investigating the orders or complaints that Al-Kazemi refers to it, or specifically referred by the Integrity Commission, estimating in a press statement the number of corruption files currently before this committee, including Between 30 and 50 files.

Al-Asadi indicated, in the context, that there is close cooperation between the Anti-Corruption Committee and the Integrity Commission, in order to resolve major corruption files related to those with special degrees, political figures, and issues that require the approval of the Prime Minister, or the approval of the intelligence, security and control agencies in order to present them for investigation.

The government reveals the destination of the surplus funds from the high oil price in the budget

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Adviser to the Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, Mazhar Muhammad Salih, determined, on Saturday, the destination of the surplus funds from the rise in the oil price in the 2022 budget
. Salih told "Mawazine News", "In order to reach a financially balanced budget, the current spending ceilings must be maintained and there is nothing wrong with that." From making an adjustment by 5 to 6%, to avoid creating a deficit,” noting that “selling more than $60 should include transferring the financial difference in prices to the investment budget.”

He added, "The step of transferring the surplus amounts to the investment budget due to the presence of thousands of stalled projects, which led to their extinction to be re-implemented," adding: "In light of the low exchange rates of the dinar, the budget will face a burden and it will be an additional cost."
The government advisor confirmed,

Wastage of personal income

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The individual income is defined as the total amount obtained by a person and his family, in order to be able to perform his duties and responsibilities. This process takes place within the well-known financial framework under two interrelated rules. The first rule says (Do not lose your wealth) and the second (Do not forget the first rule). 

After 2003, we faced a huge increase in employment in the public sector as a service or retirement, from 900,000 employees and workers before 2003 to four million affiliates and three million between social care and retirement.

These incomes, and those before them, were subjected to an unnatural process of depletion in an economic or financial context, represented by the fees of the private electric generator, then the Internet, phone cards, private schools and kindergartens, and private medicine.

This treacherous quartet is accompanied by the monetary inflation enhanced by the devaluation of the dinar compared to the dollar, which made the pockets of most of the segments dealing with these challenges suffer, especially since their services are not commensurate with most incomes, and constitute very difficult numbers for rent payers and those with chronic diseases, who are in unemployment, Especially those with professions, graduates and old retirees. 

In the face of this exacerbation, its bleeding should stop with the days, as the generator side requires reducing the price of diesel with commitment control, and the balance cards must be reprogrammed, and the prices of private education, whose contribution has become more than 30% of kindergartens, primary and secondary schools, and private universities, is just an investment with outputs that we do not envy. on them, so there was no qualitative development.

As for health investments, not all low-income people can compete with the cost of examination with modern equipment, despite the wide open importation from the specialist doctor to cleaning services, passing through the middle cadre. 

It can be said that this zero-sum competition with the public sector has produced this unfairness, which has absorbed the oil increase in our resources with projects that have nothing to do with the real economy.

This unbalanced competition between the public and private sectors, in the field of basic services, which does not usually decline in developed countries, as the perpetual predation of the private sector joins it as tributaries of the parallel and gray economy to reach, God forbid, the black economy.

After 7 years..Partial cancellation of the warning imposed on the airspace of Iraq

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The General Company for Air Navigation Services of the Ministry of Transport announced on Friday the cancellation of part of the air warning imposed by the Federal Aviation Organization "FAA" in 2014 on airspace during the war against ISIS.

In a statement received by Shafaq News Agency, Director of the Air Traffic Department Jassem Abdel Ali said, "After implementing the directives of the Minister of Transport, Captain Nasser Hussein Al-Shibli, and the high coordination with all concerned parties and the efforts made to improve the level of navigational services provided and to participate in the numerous meetings and seminars with the International Civil Aviation Organization ( ICAO, the Air Transport Association (IATA) and the companies transiting the Iraqi airspace, part of the air warning that had been imposed since 2014 on the Iraqi airspace during the war against ISIS has been cancelled.

He explained that "reducing the warning on the Iraqi airspace is a positive step that has clear economic dimensions that lead to an increase in the number of planes transiting Iraqi airspace, and thus raise the revenues of the state's general budget."

Ali added, "The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) today lifted the NOTAM declaration for Iraqi airspace, which considered the atmosphere unsafe and dangerous for American airliners, and for eight years, it was replaced today by a new declaration that considers high altitudes from above 32,000 feet as safe and valid altitudes for the passage and transit of companies." Aviation"

The US embassy is following the progress of the demonstrators towards the green and preparing for any emergency

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On Saturday, a security source said that the US embassy in Baghdad is following up on the latest developments after the demonstrators protesting the election results advanced towards the Green Zone.

The source told Shafaq News Agency, "The US embassy is following up on the escalation that took place within the green approaches and is preparing in anticipation of any emergency."

He added, "There is no friction, and the security situation is good when approaching Green."

The source confirmed that "the situation is now good," noting that "the protesters were stationed near the first line of the security forces within the Falaqa, the entrance to Al-Khadra (suspension bridge), and that there were no casualties on both sides."

"With this, the place of the sit-in will be moved from the entrance to the Martyrs Foundation towards the Al-Mu'allaq Falak," he added.

And a security source said earlier today, Saturday, that the protesters against the election results, who are camping in central Baghdad, advanced towards the heavily fortified Green Zone.

The source told Shafaq News Agency, that the protesters advanced towards the suspension bridge, which is one of the entrances to the Green Zone in central Baghdad, which includes the headquarters of the government, parliament and foreign missions. He added that they reached the first wall of the suspension bridge closed with concrete blocks.

The source pointed out that "according to sources from inside the sit-in, there is no intention to storm the Green Zone, and what happened is only progress."

The source added that the special squad began to move inside the Green Zone as a precautionary security measure in anticipation of any emergency.

On Tuesday, hundreds of supporters of Shiite political factions and forces began a sit-in in central Baghdad, near one of the gates of the Green Zone, expressing their rejection of the election results and demanding a manual recount of votes.

Shiite forces, including influential factions, had previously warned that proceeding with these results "threatens civil peace in the country." Which raised fears of a possible outbreak of internal fighting in the country.

Preliminary results showed that the "Sadr bloc" swept the rest of the Shiite forces, winning 73 seats.