Public Expenditures and their Effects on the Federal General Budget in Iraq

There are many effects of public expenditures in various political, legal, social and economic aspects, and even at the security level in all countries, including Iraq, as these expenditures can effectively contribute to bringing about the required changes, if they are employed correctly, in accordance with the laws regulating them, The importance of the study is that public spending is an important tool in the hands of the state, to correct its economic conditions and improve its social conditions. Therefore, to study the weaknesses that suffer from the shortcomings of financial legislation in this field, and to study in depth, to find out the reasons for the weak application of laws related to determining The collection of revenues, and the distribution and disbursement of expenditures by the spending units, as these tasks are very important, and they are handled from the legal side. The problem is that there are weaknesses in the laws and spending policy in Iraq, and that it is not possible to continue with those laws and the same policy that prevailed during the past period, because this leads to negative effects, and that the huge public expenditures in light of the weak control over their proper use, which results in effects negative, through our study, we came to the definition of public expenditure: it is: an amount of money that comes out of the state’s financial disclosure or one of its public bodies with the aim of satisfying a public need; The elements of public alimony were identified with three: the first: it is an amount of money, the second: the issuance of alimony by a public person, and the third: the achievement of a public benefit or the satisfaction of a public need. It turns out that public expenditures are not realized unless a sum of money comes out of the state’s financial responsibility in cash. The criterion is the exit of money from the state’s custody, and it is the only way to satisfy public needs. Financial jurisprudence has set criteria to distinguish between public expenditures and private expenditures, including: the legal standard, and the functional standard, the standard of ownership of the money spent. The last criterion is more likely, because all expenditures undertaken by the state or through its public projects, national and local, are considered public expenditures, without regard to the nature of the sovereign capacity or the peremptory authority, or the nature of the job from which the expenditure is issued. Or a group, party, or body, unless such tunnels result in the achievement of the public benefit.