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Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, President of the board at AMAN, welcomed the audience
and thanked the Minister for responding to AMAN’s invitation and his
willingness to present the budget and provide explanation for its
distribution. Dr. Ashrawi also thanked members of the diplomatic
missions, the international institutions and civil society organizations
for supporting AMAN in its mission of enhancing transparency and
accountability in the Palestinian society.
Dr. Azmi Shuaibi, AMAN Commissioner for Combating Corruption, who
moderated the session, emphasized AMAN’s role in promoting the
principles of transparency in public funds management. He also pointed
out AMAN’s conviction to the principle that the Palestinian citizen has
the right to know how these funds are managed by the public officials
and institutions.
Dr. Azmi said that although we are here to listen and learn of the 2009
budget before it is submitted to the president, we hope that he will
brief us on the implementation of the 2008 budget in addition to the
policies planned to be applied for this year.
He
added that this is a good opportunity for CSOs, researchers, experts and
AMAN friends to directly question the Minister on the 2009 budget. Also
this opportunity will allow present PLC members to discuss and question
the Minister since the PLC has been dysfunctional for more than two
years.
During his speech, Dr. Fayyad denounced the vicious attack on Gaza by
the Israeli occupation authorities and the destruction it caused to
human and material resources there. He said that that there are 600
million dollars allocated as emergency funds for restoring and
rebuilding Gaza.
Dr. Fayad pointed that the bulk of the 600 million dollars is expected
to be provided by funders. Reconstruction programs will be conducted
through a mechanism in cooperation and agreement of the banking sector.
The sector, in addition to implementation assistance, can provide
further financial assistance to affected citizens in Gaza. Details of
the program which will include rebuilding of the infrastructure will be
announced in the next few days.
Dr. Fayad declared that PNA will contribute 50 million dollars, first
granted to the PA by the United Nations campaign fund, as urgent aid for
the victims in Gaza.
In his presentation of the projected budget for 2009, Dr. Salam Fayad
presented financial policies intended to be applied in 2009, and
implementation process for the 2008 budget. Efforts in reforming and
developing the financial system were also presented.
Finally, the final session included questions from PLC members and other
panelists where the Minister had an opportunity to reply to their
inquiries. Panelists, mainly PLC members requested that the Minister
hold a special meeting at the legislative council to discuss the 2009
budget before submitting it to the president. Other recommendations
including request a larger societal participation when preparing the
budget and policies intended to be followed. Furthermore, justifications
for allocating a relatively high percentage of the budget for the
security institution were questioned. And finally, the recommendations
included taking into account the global financial crisis and its affects
on the 2009 budget.
Participating PLC members were: Khaleda Jarrar, Vice-Chairmen of the
PLC, Bassam Salhi, Sahar Qwasmi, and Dr. Abdullah Abdullah. Dr. Camille
Mansour represented the Independent Commission for Human Rights; Dr.
Nasr Abdul-Kareem and Dr. Mohammad Nasser represented the academic
stream, while Dr. Hadeel Kazaz represented CSOs. After an extensive
session of question-answer, Dr. Fayad made his commitment to hold one
exclusive technical meeting to discuss the 2009 budget in detail, and
another meeting to the budget allocated for reconstruction in Gaza
Strip.
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