Public Expenditures Priorities between Human Development Requirements and Funding Constraints

Interest in the issue of public Expenditures (spending) priorities increases in times of financial and economic crisis, when restrictions on government funding grow, and financial markets stumble in providing financing channels with the necessary liquidity, as well as when paying attention to increasing the efficiency and productivity of public spending, by reducing the waste of public money and pursuing its allocation between different economic sectors to achieve the public benefit as much as possible and at the lowest possible cost. Among the discussions being raised in this regard is where the priority lies in spending is on sectors that support human development such as (education, health and public services), or the priority of spending on other sectors (which may hinder human development and delay the development of states and civil societies) such as military sectors, armaments, military industries and related sectors. Because each side has its arguments and evidence of modern economic and human experiences, it is difficult to resolve the controversy in a certain direction and ignore the opinion of the second party, but what concerns us is the situation of our country and our society and the economic and social pressures and renewed threats from time to time, and what is the most objective and credible reading of the authors of the philosophy of the Iraqi economy, and its emerging priorities developed after 2003, through the trends of the federal budget in this country. Given the financial crisis that is ravaging the global economy as a result of the Corona pandemic and the great isolation measures Great Lockdown and the repercussions of this crisis on the Iraqi economy as a result of the collapse of the world oil markets, so discussions are escalating in the field of rationalization and efficiency of government public spending, and because the general budget depends on the general revenues on oil revenues by more than 90% in most years after 2003, so an external shock or collapse in the oil market affects the revenues of the general budget, and therefore there is a situation The uncertainty of budget planners and implementers in collecting the revenues required to cover the public expenditure side, and the most important items of governing public expenditure, namely employee compensation, support for the poor and others.