ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – A committee formed by the Iraqi Council of Ministers to investigate salary and oil disputes between Erbil and Baghdad has received a week's extension from Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani, The New Region’s Baghdad correspondent reported on Tuesday.

The extension was granted after Sudani received conflicting accounts from Iraqi Finance Minister Taif Sami and Oil Minister Hayyan Abdul Ghani regarding the progress of the committee’s work. Ghani reportedly told Sudani that the committee has prepared their report, stating that 130,000 barrels of oil are produced in the Region currently, of which 50,000 are to be allocated for local consumption.

Sami, meanwhile, said that the committee was not assisted in its work and that different mechanisms of calculating non-oil revenues by Baghdad and Erbil have been a problem, according to The New Region’s Baghdad reporter.

Early in July, Sudani directed the formation of a committee to investigate the disputes between Erbil and Baghdad, particularly over the funding of the Kurdistan Region’s civil servant salaries by the federal government and the issue of resuming the Region’s oil exports.

The committee, initially allowed mere weeks to complete its work, was tasked with studying the drafts put forth by the two governments, holding meetings with relevant parties on both sides, and then submitting recommendations to the Iraqi Council of Ministers based on their findings to help the council make a final decision regarding the outstanding issues between the two governments.

Despite the matter not being on the Council of Ministers' Tuesday agenda, The New Region has learned that Kurdish ministers reportedly raised the topic on the sidelines of the meeting.

The suspension of the Kurdistan Region’s civil servant salaries by the Iraqi finance ministry sparked outrage among the Region’s public as well as officials and politicians, who have slammed the decision as “political.”

The Region’s civil servant salaries for the month of May were disbursed in late July after months of deliberation between the two governments, coming after Iraqi Finance Minister Taif Sami said that Baghdad was “unable to continue funding the Region” for the rest of the year, arguing that Erbil has already exceeded its share of the annual budget.

The Region’s employees have yet to receive June and July salaries as of the time of writing this article.