“Tidbits From TNT” Wednesday 1-7-2026

TNT:

Tishwash:  The Iraqi Trade Bank announces that all its branches will be open during official holidays.

The Iraqi Trade Bank announced on Tuesday that all its branches will be open during official holidays, based on the directives of the Central Bank.

The bank's media office stated in a statement received by the Iraqi News Agency (INA) that, "Based on the directives of the Central Bank of Iraq, it has been decided to open all branches of the Iraqi Trade Bank to receive customers during official holidays from ten o'clock in the morning until one o'clock in the afternoon.

 Working hours during this period will be limited to receiving and processing foreign transfers and the pre-customs declaration only, and no other banking operations will be carried out other than those mentioned above."

He added that "work will continue at the bank during official holidays until 31/1/2026".  link

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Tishwash:  Al-Rasheed Bank announces the launch of Reconstruction Bonds (Third Issue)

Al-Rasheed Bank announced today, Tuesday, the launch of its third issuance of reconstruction bonds. The bank's media office stated in a press release that "the third issuance of reconstruction bonds will be issued in denominations of 500,000 Iraqi dinars only, with the disbursement of the fourth and final semi-annual interest payments."

The statement further clarified that "the fourth and final semi-annual interest payments will also be disbursed to reconstruction bonds in denominations of 1,000,000 Iraqi dinars only."

The bank called on the citizens included to "visit the relevant branches to complete the receipt procedures," stressing "its full commitment to fulfilling all government bond obligations, within the framework of its national role in supporting reconstruction plans and enhancing confidence in the Iraqi banking sector."  link

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Tishwash:  The 2025 budget tables: Who bears the responsibility for the trillions of dinars lost?

The 2025 budget tables raise a pivotal question: Who will answer for managing the funds of an entire year away from parliamentary oversight?

Between continuous postponement and parliamentary statements, the citizen remains facing the hypothesis of non-transparent spending, while the government and parliament prepare for the 2026 budget in less favorable financial circumstances, making transparency the first real test.

Between a simple question on paper: “Where are the 2025 budget tables?” and a more complex question about the shape of the 2026 budget in light of cheaper oil and a heavier deficit, the financial scene in Iraq is moving on shaky political ground that makes every numerical entitlement a file for contention and postponement.

MP Mudar Al-Karawi summarizes one aspect of the picture when he says that “the 2025 budget schedules were expected to reach the Finance Committee in the House of Representatives during February or March of last year, but they have not been sent yet.”

But behind this statement is a whole fiscal year in which public money was spent without the detailed distribution of its expenditure passing through the House of Representatives as the constitution requires, as if trillions of dinars were managed in “dark rooms” outside the oversight light.

The tripartite law, which included the budgets for 2023, 2024, and 2025, was presented to the public as a reform step that would end the annual delay in approving the budget and provide a basis for planning for three consecutive years.

But the end of 2025 revealed a harsh paradox: the state has an effective budget law, but its third year is almost a “year without schedules”; spending continues, contracts are signed, and obligations are postponed, while the document that is supposed to explain to Iraqis how and where their money was spent has not been completed or has not yet been presented on a clear legislative path.

A full year's schedules without a clear legislative path

Al-Karawi links the completion of the parliamentary leadership and the formation of committees, particularly the Finance Committee, to the reopening of this stalled issue. With the resumption of sessions, the committee will face two overlapping tasks simultaneously: first, demanding that the government submit the 2025 budget schedules with detailed section by section; and second, developing a clear mechanism for finalizing the 2026 budget by proposing ideas that align with Iraq's current financial realities, rather than simply repeating the approaches of past years.

The crux of the problem is that Iraq entered the “tripartite budget” experiment based on a single law covering the years 2023, 2024 and 2025, with huge spending figures, a clear deficit, and a hypothetical oil price that was more optimistic than what the market later proved.

The law stipulated sending annual schedules that clarify where the money goes each year, from provincial projects to sectoral allocations, but what happened in practice is that the third year turned into a gray area; spending is ongoing, and obligations are continuing, while the schedules that give Parliament the right to examine and amend have not arrived at all, or have remained locked away in the executive drawers.

With this transformation, the “2025 schedules” become more than a financial document; they become a test of the limits of real oversight of public finances, and a mirror reflecting how trillions of dinars can be managed away from public parliamentary debate, at a time when the citizen is asked to bear the consequences of those decisions without being informed of their details.

Who is held accountable for a lost fiscal year?

The question of “Who is accountable?” oscillates between politics, oversight, and the judiciary, and has yet to find a definitive answer.

Theoretically, the House of Representatives possesses broad oversight tools; the Finance Committee can request a detailed report from the new government on its spending plans for 2025, summon relevant ministers and officials to explain the reasons for the delays, and even proceed with questioning if it is proven that the delay was not a mere administrative oversight but a deliberate political decision to avoid public debate on the figures.

In contrast, the Financial Control Bureau can present to the representatives and the public a report that answers the direct question of the street: On what basis were hundreds of trillions spent in a year whose schedules were not approved?

What is the extent of the commitments that were postponed to 2026 without a clear legislative cover? And how did these commitments overlap with the contracts and projects that were extended or referred in light of this vacuum? Opening the “books of 2025” in this manner is not a supervisory luxury, but rather a prerequisite to convince people that talk of “financial reform” is not just a slogan for political consumption.

However, the deeper dilemma lies in the conflict of interests; the forces that participated in managing the 2025 budget within the executive branch are almost the same ones that have the upper hand within parliament.

Here, accountability becomes a test for the entire political system: Does it have the courage to subject a full fiscal year to a genuine review, or will the file be moved from shelf to shelf until it is forgotten under other headings?

2026... A new year born from cheaper oil and heavier spending

The biggest challenge, as Al-Karawi points out, is looming from the gateway of 2026. The new year does not start from a zero point, but rather on top of accumulated layers of public spending; inflated salaries that have come to swallow the largest part of the budget, long-term contracts in the electricity and infrastructure sectors, obligations towards the region and governorates, in addition to internal and external debts whose interest accumulates year after year.

In contrast, the oil prices on which the three-year budget assumptions were based have declined significantly; this means that each barrel is now being sold at a price lower than the price at which the spending was designed.

This difference does not remain confined to tables and calculations, but is directly reflected in the state’s ability to finance salaries and services, and in its margin for investment spending.

Therefore, Al-Kroui warns that the financial situation in 2026 “will not be easy”, and that the matter “requires taking decisions that would provide a degree of flexibility and smoothness in financial dealings, secure funding for state departments and ensure the continuity of the salary file.”

Politically, the 2026 budget appears to be an early test for both the incoming government and the new parliament; it will reveal the extent to which political forces can move from the logic of postponing the problem to the logic of acknowledging the numbers as they are, and bear the cost of moving from the discourse of “oil abundance” to the discourse of managing scarcity with greater transparency before the public.   link

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Mot: . They Say - its Not What Ya Says.. but How Ya Says it!!! 

Mot: Getting it Right is Important!! -- Right!!!!????