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PA Funds Allocation and Distribution Report
A report recently published by the Nazaha project deals with the allocation and distribution of funds by the Palestinian Authority (PA).
The Nazaha project is jointly implemented by AMAN (Coalition for Accountability and Integrity) and the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) to combat corruption in the NGO sector and to strengthen the Palestinian civil society through enhancing accountability and good governance as part of the European Union’s “Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights”.
After successfully compiling a Code of Conduct for Palestinian NGOs, the project enters now its next phase, in which the NGOs are taking a watchdog role towards the governmental and private sector.
The PA Allocation and Distribution report aims at the following:
examining the incoming and outgoing finances of the PA for the purpose of defining the size of these funds
defining the size of funds held by the Israeli government which are collected on behalf of the Palestinians in the form of taxes and customs
defining the number and amount of grants and assistance given to the PA during that period; as well as the mechanisms used for distribution
defining obstacles and problems related to the allocation and distribution of these funds
defining violations of the PA that relate to the allocation and distribution of these funds
The report describes and identifies the problems of the last reporting period from January 2006 to June 2007. During most of that period the ministry of finance had been under the control of the Hamas-led government, a period which witnessed the suspension of diplomatic relations by the Western donor countries and Israel with the Palestinian government as well as the suspension of financial aid directly to the government. Hence, no information regarding in-coming money was reported. The financial influx to the Palestinian Government mainly took place by means of high-ranking members of the Hamas-government personally carrying large sums of donations from other countries to the Palestinian Territories. The report notes that the lack of information made available by this and past governments made it impossible to ensure any kind of accountability.
Nevertheless, since the political and budgetary situation has changed since the government of Salam Fayyad has been appointed in June 2007, several options to ensure future transparency in the allocation and distribution process are presented in the report. Amongst others, it is suggested that the budget plan for 2008 should be presented to the PLC and that NGOs should be involved in defining the priorities within the budget. In addition, it is proposed to establish a financial system within the ministry of finance that would prevent people in power from abusing their position for personal gains.
Copyright AMAN © 2007
