Teachers in Al-Sulaymaniyah reject KRG salary banking plan
Shafaq News- Al-Sulaymaniyah
Teachers in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region on Wednesday pushed back against a government plan to move public sector salaries into bank accounts, warning the project could tighten political control over wages already mired in delays and disputes.
Speaking at a press conference in Al-Sulaymaniyah, Najm al-Din Mohammed, a representative of teachers whose salaries have been suspended, said many educators distrust the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Hisabi (My Account) program, a banking system designed to route employee salaries through financial institutions.
Mohammed argued the initiative, launched by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), has faced complications since its rollout and risks placing greater control over salaries in the hands of authorities rather than employees.
“Many teachers have had difficult experiences with the salary file in the past,” he said, adding that delays and disputes over payments have eroded trust in the institutions managing the payroll system.
He also pointed to political divisions within the regional government during the project’s early stages. Some parties had criticized the plan before later backing its implementation, he said, while other political forces remained largely silent despite widespread reservations among employees.
According to Mohammed, many teachers and civil servants have refused to complete registration forms required to join the Hisabi system, saying they faced pressure to enroll.
He accused some authorities of attempting to suspend the salaries of teachers in the education directorates of eastern Al-Sulaymaniyah and Sharazur District because they declined to participate, calling the measure a violation of their legal rights.
“Teachers who continue to resist joining the program may pursue legal action if the pressure persists,” he added.
The Kurdish Ministry of Finance and Economy has defended the initiative, describing Hisabi as a strategic financial reform aimed at modernizing banking services and ensuring salaries are delivered securely and transparently.
The ministry says the program, implemented with several banks licensed by the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI), will provide more than 19 banking services to public employees for a monthly fee of 2,500 Iraqi dinars ($1.9) and is part of a broader effort to open roughly one million bank accounts for government workers across the region.
