Erbil declares its position on the decentralization project in Kurdistan Region

Shafaq News / Erbil governorate, the capital of Kurdistan Region announced on Monday its support for the decentralization project of local administrations within the legal frameworks, refusing to politicize this matter.

Governor Firsat Sofi said in a press conference held today that, according to Law No. 3 of 2009, the powers of the governorates and their councils were defined, and the program of the ninth government formation of Kurdistan Region spoke clearly and frankly about this matter in granting more powers to local governments and departments.

He added that the political agreements on forming a government between the main parties in the region included this paragraph, stressing by saying, "We in Erbil province need to activate this project more than other provinces in the region."

Sofi added by saying that this issue needs a legal mechanism and we need to amend the above law by local governments and their councils in order to be submitted to the region’s cabinet and from there to parliament so that we can activate executive decentralization.

He stressed that this issue should take its legal course away from political conflicts and be dealt with as an urgent necessity, indicating that Erbil is the most disadvantaged governorate in terms of funding from among the rest of the provinces of the region, we desperately need to activate decentralization more than before.