Project Case Study
Establishing a department for parliamentary business in Iraq’s Council of Ministers’ Secretariat
Building capacity in Iraq's centre of government
The Iraqi Parliament (House of Representatives) was one of the only Iraqi institutions that survived the toppling of the Ba’athist Regime in Iraq in 2003, albeit in an altered form that was underpinned by a new constitutional and an almost complete change of members.
The executive branch of government however – centred around the Prime Minister and his Council of Ministers – was a completely new construction without any recent antecedents, protocols or procedures upon which to draw.
As part of our broader programme of support to Iraq’s new centre of government institutions, we were charged in 2006 with building capacity within the Council of Minister’s Secretariat (Cabinet Office). We assisted it in engaging with the House of Representatives and developing a full suite of protocols and procedures to govern relationships between the executive and legislature on legislation, parliamentary business and the process by which the annual government budget is formulated, reviewed and approved.
From 2006, we deployed teams to work concurrently with key committees of the House of Representatives and the Council of Minister’s Secretariat. This work is set to continue in its current phase with support from the Swedish Government until 2014.
