Sudani ends contracts of advisers after government programs reach 88% completion

BAGHDAD — Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani on Monday directed restructuring measures within his office, including ending the contracts of several advisers and experts after government programs they were assigned to oversee reached an overall completion rate of 88 percent.

The prime minister’s media office said the steps were taken “within the framework of reducing expenditures and activating performance.”

The measures included “ending the contracts of a number of advisers and experts who were previously tasked with managing and following up on several important and vital files in the field of implementing government programs, which have reached an overall completion rate of 88%, while appreciating their efforts.”

The office also took “a number of important rationalization steps and expenditure reductions in most sections of the office’s operational budget,” the statement said.

Sudani directed “all government institutions to implement all Cabinet decisions issued in this regard, in a way that achieves clear rationalization of expenditures and maximum use of their capabilities.”

The move comes as part of a broader push by the government to tighten spending. On Feb. 1, Sudani chaired a meeting to review oversight and anti-corruption measures, calling for “preventive” actions to stop waste of public funds and directing supervisory agencies to submit proposals to maximize revenues and reduce expenditures.

He described the role of oversight institutions as a “legal and constitutional task parallel to the work of the Council of Ministers,” urging officials to identify “loopholes of corruption and waste of public money.”