In an unprecedented step, the National Secretariat in the Transparency Commission began to address the disclosure authorities in the ministries and international companies operating in Iraq to send their necessary data to issue transparency reports for the years 2022 and 2023.

The move is based on a decision taken by the Board of Trustees after deliberation with the International Secretariat of the Initiative and in coordination with the World Bank.

Mr. Alaa Mohieldin, Executive Director of the Authority, pointed out that the Board has resorted to this procedure because of the inability of the procedures for contracting with the Independent Administrative Company because of the lack of financial allocation and the challenges faced by the Authority in obtaining the funding approved by Diwani Order No. 23512 of 2023, which obliged the Ministry of Oil to provide it.

The National Secretariat has made an urgent request to the World Bank to provide the necessary advice and train the staff of the National Secretariat on data collection mechanisms and the work of disclosure forms. Support is provided under emergency grants provided by the Global Programme Support for Extractive Industries (EGPS). Accordingly, the World Bank has hired the global consultant, Mr. Michael Barron, to follow up on data collection and ensure that they conform to international standards.

It is noteworthy that the international standards of the initiative oblige participating countries to issue the report no later than two full years after the end of the year of the report. That is, the deadline for the issuance of the report 2022, for example, is 2024/12/31. Otherwise, the membership of the State would be subject to suspension. To avoid this, the Board of Trustees has taken this urgent step, which will be followed by a more important step, which is to submit a formal request to the International Board of the initiative to postpone the date of issuance until the availability of sufficient financial allocation to contract with the independent administrator