Dr. Salam Fayyad, Palestinian Minister of
Finance, announced the re-launching of the website for
the Ministry, which will reveal all allocations and
distribution reports of the PNA on regular basis.
This action constitutes an important and
historical step initiated by the Minister in enhancing
transparency within institutions of the Palestinian
National Authority. It also demonstrates precedence for
establishing bases for good governance symbolized by
being accountable for actions taken as a result of
allowing citizens to have easy access to the necessary
information of the income and output of the Ministry
including funding from donor countries.
Organized by the Coalition for integrity
and accountability - AMAN and in cooperation with the
Ministry of Finance, the launching of the website was
held during a celebration on 26/3/2008 in the Grand
Hotel in Ramallah. The event was attended by the Prime
Minister, Dr. Salam Fayyad, and a number government
officials, representatives from the public & private
sectors, foreign diplomats, as well as representatives
of national and international non-governmental
organizations.
Fayyad pledged to publish monthly
financial reports on income and expenditure and funding
sources, and he said “The Ministry of Finance on a date
with you in 15 of every month.
“This is a promise” said Dr. Fayyad as he
explained the importance of this event marking a new way
of putting a stop to rumors and allegations relating to
corruption.
He said “This Event is important; first,
because it represents a fundamental step towards
enhancing transparency in the Palestinian National
Authority (PNA); and secondly, it establishes
foundations for good governance. From now on, each
citizen as well as anyone who is interested will be able
to examine all of the PNA’s financial transactions by
the push of a button. This in time will eliminate any
doubts relating to corruption and financial management
of public funds within institutions of the PNA.
“Reform is not just a slogan; and
political will is not sufficient in itself. In order to
achieve high levels of efficiency and organization
required to publish financial data regularly on pre-set
dates, systems must be established that are managed by
professionals; and this is what we are attempting to
show the world. We hope that this event will achieve its
aim of consolidating financial trust in the PNA; locally
and internationally, especially as it comes in the wake
of the direct international financial support.
Dr. Azmi Shuaibi, The Coalition
commissioner in combating corruption, praised the
Ministry for taking this step to enhance transparency
and accountability within institutions of the PNA. He
said: We are looking forward to utilizing this method of
providing easy access to information to anyone who
chooses to examine the PNA’s management of public funds.
Having financial and other related reports posted
monthly will, no doubt, enhance the image, as well as
instill trust, in the PNA institutions.
Dr. Shuaibi, spoke about the obstacles
faced by the AMAN coalition (Transparency Palestine) in
the past when preparing reports relating to allocation
and distribution of public funds as we tried to fulfill
our obligation to the United Nations Convention against
Corruption which stresses the need and importance of
transparency when dealing with public funds, especially
financial procedures. “In the past two years, Shuaibi
said, we faced problems in gathering accurate
information; we thought that it was technical problems
at first, but when we required numbers needed for our
reports, for example, we could not get accurate numbers
relating to the revenues and expenditures for the year
2006 despite all the efforts exerted”. In building a
responsible civil society, Shuaibi insisted that its
participation in monitoring the PNA’s performance will
not be valuable unless accurate financial information of
revenues and expenses are easily accessed.
On a different note, Dr. Shuaibi urged
the government to take issues
of corruption seriously such as the outdated flour and
counterfeit medicines that surfaced during last few
weeks.
On behalf of the UNDP representative in
the Palestinian territories Mr. Mounir Kleibo spoke by
stating that “launching the website is an Essential step
in enhancing transparency, and in the development of
systems of good financial management. We believe that
good governance is a fundamental step in achieving
developmental goals”.
He also said that corruption is not
limited to developing nations, “but is a global problem.
There is a need for concerted efforts of the government,
private sector and civil society to combat this
disease”.
In this context, Kleibo praised the
cooperation between the Ministry of Finance and AMAN and
other institutions of civil society in combating
corruption.
Youssef Al Zumur, director general of
public administration of the treasury department, said
that a new computerized financial system for the
Palestinian National Authority was established. The
system is designed to handle all financial requirements
needed and is in line with the latest international
accounting standards.
