“Tidbits From TNT” Monday 8-19-2024

TNT:

Tishwash:  Government Advisor: “Petro Dinar” Requires Good Stock of Foreign Currencies and Gold

The Prime Minister's advisor for financial affairs, Mazhar Muhammad Salih, explained today, Sunday, that "the adoption of the dinar in pricing oil, or what is called (petro dinar), requires, first of all, the availability of foreign reserve currencies or gold, as Russia did when it purchased Russian oil with gold-backed rubles, which caused problems that we will discuss later."

He added in press statements that "these foreign reserves must be available (as a necessary condition) and operate according to a high standard of efficiency that guarantees the stability of the exchange rate linked to oil (the petro dinar) in order to hedge against oil price fluctuations to ensure the stability of the exchange rate (the petro dinar) itself."

“Linking oil sales to the dinar on a fixed basis with oil prices instead of the foreign reserves base means linking the dinar to the oil asset cycle first, and that oil is sold according to global oil prices. If the exchange rate of the dinar (petrodinar) against the (petrodollar) is fixed, and oil prices fall, then the demand for the dinar for accounting purposes will certainly fall, and the dinar will be exchanged for oil in larger quantities and the demand for the (petrodinar) will be lower, and vice versa,” he added.

He pointed out that "any deviation between oil prices (petrodollar) and the exchange rate (petrodinar) according to international market data will be considered a cost that requires compensation by paying fewer dinars or collecting a higher dinar in the opposite case," indicating that "international reserve currencies are foreign currencies held by central banks and global financial institutions as part of their cash reserves. These currencies are used in international transactions and settling debts between countries, and are a standard for international payments and facilitating global trade."  link  

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Tishwash:  Parliament falsifies the budget again.. Al-Mandlawi may lose his position!

 MP Basem Khashan confirmed the possibility of terminating the membership of the acting Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mohsen Al-Mandalawi, if the charges of tampering with the budget tables that were recently revealed by the Prime Minister’s Office are proven, noting that the parliament committed legal violations in amending the budget tables and they were on their way to being published and implemented had it not been for the government’s scrutiny, indicating that many MPs were subjected to deception in this file.

The Council of Ministers had spoken of an increase of 15 trillion dinars in the last tables, and it was not included in the agreement, discussions and voting, requesting a re-audit.

Khashan said, in an interview with the media figure Ahmed Mulla Talal:

The budget tables sent by the Council of Ministers were changed and their allocations were manipulated in the House of Representatives in an illegal manner.

The forged schedules would have been published and implemented had it not been for the Cabinet's scrutiny.

Most of the budget schedules have been changed, and the process has been carried out by ignoring a large number of parliamentarians.

The legal violations committed by the House of Representatives in amending the budget tables are countless and are considered a major crime.

The funding for the ration card basket has been increased to 5 trillion dinars for contracts that include major problems.

Manipulation and alteration operations can be legally classified under the crimes of alteration with the intent to defraud, regardless of the size of the amounts and figures that were manipulated.

The acting Speaker of the House of Representatives is responsible for tampering with the budget tables sent to the Cabinet.

The Federal Court can terminate Mohsen Al-Mandalawi’s membership, if the charges of manipulation are proven.  link

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Tishwash:  Iraq: Qusay Shafiq reveals major financial scandals and demands investigation

Public money scandals continue in Iraq

 Dr. Qusay Shafiq, a well-known activist on social media, sparked widespread controversy after revealing huge financial scandals related to the management of public funds in Iraq. He accused the government and parliament of manipulating the financial budget tables, wondering about the fate of tens of billions of dollars that were not spent transparently.

Shafiq referred in a tweet on the “X” website to what he described as the “theft of the century,” which the Integrity Commission estimated at $2.5 billion, equivalent to 4 trillion Iraqi dinars. However, he expressed his surprise at the large gap between this figure and the ongoing corruption in manipulating the budgets of recent years, as he revealed that the manipulation of the 2024 budget tables reached about $10 billion.

In a related context, Shafik touched on the Food Security Law, noting that about $20 billion has been allocated to it, but he wondered about the entities that monitored the disbursement of this money, stressing that the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank have not received any of this money so far. He added, “$10 billion was spent on infrastructure projects, but where did the remaining $10 billion go?”

Shafik discussed the budgets of previous years, including the budgets of 2014, 2020, 2022, and 2023, noting that no funds were disbursed to the governorates from the 2023 budget. This raised questions about how the authorities deal with public funds, especially in light of the Central Bank’s report, which indicated that the cash reserve had not increased despite the significant rise in oil prices due to regional conflicts.

Qusay Shafiq concluded his statements by calling for a comprehensive investigation into previous financial deals, stressing that the people’s money is a trust that must be preserved. These statements come at a time when Iraq is witnessing increasing pressure from citizens and international observers, who are demanding greater transparency and accountability in the management of public funds.

Shafiq's statements are a strong call for regulatory bodies and government authorities to take urgent action to curb corruption and clarify the fate of the allocated funds, as the Iraqi people await answers on how their financial wealth is managed.  link

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Tishwash:  Urgent In numbers.. The Central Bank buys dollars from the Ministry of Finance in an unprecedented move since 2003

An economic expert revealed an “unprecedented” figure for the value of the dollars purchased by the Central Bank of Iraq from the Ministry of Finance during the month of July.

The Central Bank of Iraq purchased $9.6 billion from the Ministry of Finance in July 2024, the highest value since the bank began purchasing dollars from the ministry in 2003," Manar Al-Obaidi said in a statement received by {Euphrates News}.
He added, "The purchases did not exceed this value during the past ten years except once in October of last year, at $10 billion."

Al-Obaidi explained, "Thus, the rate of dollar purchases from the Central Bank for the year 2024 has reached $5.9 billion per month, the highest over the past ten years, with an annual growth rate of 10%. The growth rate had previously risen in 2023 to 20%."

He attributed "this increase in purchases to the Ministry of Finance's need for local currency to cover its increasing expenses over the past years, especially with the increase in operating spending and raising the level of spending in the 2023, 2024 and 2025 budgets."

Al-Obaidi expected that "this rate will rise in the coming months with the Central Bank's inability to meet the need for Iraqi dinars, which may force it to increase the issued monetary mass to meet the ministry's expenditure needs."  link

Mot:  . Better safe than sorry 

Mot: pickles loves cheese