The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is taking steps to address issues related to salary payments for civil servants by implementing biometric technology. Faced with delays in payments due to ongoing financial issues and disputes with the federal government, the KRG has ordered its ministries to speed up the creation of an electronic payment system.
A key part of this initiative is completing biometric registration and assigning unique employee numbers to all salary recipients, which aims to ensure accurate and efficient payroll management. This move is in response to Baghdad’s insistence on regularizing payments and addressing concerns over payroll inaccuracies, such as duplicate entries.
By registering employees biometrically, the KRG can eliminate fraud and errors in the payroll system, such as the presence of duplicate names and inconsistent entries. The initiative is part of a broader effort to improve transparency and accountability, as Baghdad has been reluctant to send full salary payments due to past discrepancies.
In addition to biometric registration, the KRG is working with six private banks to offer digital banking services to its more than one million public employees through the My Account program. About 120,000 public servants have already been registered and received their salaries through this system. However, there are challenges as the federal government has its own banking program, Tawtin, which it wants to implement, potentially conflicting with the KRG’s initiative.
In any case, the introduction of biometric technology and the electronic payment system could be a significant step towards resolving the longstanding salary payment issues faced by civil servants in the Kurdistan Region. As these programs develop, the collaboration between the KRG and Baghdad will be critical in addressing the delays and preventing fraud in the payroll system, providing much-needed relief to the region’s civil servants.
Source: Rudaw
–
September 5, 2024 – by the FindBiometrics Editorial Team
Follow Us