BAGHDAD — Plunging oil prices are now affecting ordinary civil servants’ salaries in Iraq. Al-Monitor met with an employee of the Ministry of Culture who, on condition of anonymity, shared his plan of submitting a request to take a one-year leave of absence without pay once he finds a job in the private sector to make up for the government salary. Rumors that civil servants may end up not being paid in the coming months are the result of a 3% reduction in their salaries as of January, which is helping fund the Popular Mobilization Units in their war against the Islamic State (IS).

In regard to the situation of Iraq’s civil servants, he said, “Cuts in civil servants’ salaries have caused discontent in the Iraqi street and resulted in some employees resigning, either to work abroad or in the private sector, because their salaries are not even enough to pay rent.”

The Iraqi economy — which depends on oil revenues to support state expenditures — is in shock; Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi promised that the economic crisis would be absorbed through an austerity plan he announced in October 2014, which has now resulted in the public sector’s salaries being reduced by 3%.

On Dec. 16, parliament approved the 2016 draft budget, which is estimated at 105 trillion Iraqi dinars ($87.5 billion). However, $60 billion of the draft budget is needed to pay civil servants’ salaries in 2016, in addition to the cost of the war waged against IS, which the parliamentary finance committee estimated at $10 million a day, or $3.65 billion annually.