|
AMAN
welcomed the
decision by the Palestinian High
Court regarding the disputed issue
between the government and
a group of
employees on
the government's decision banning
the use of
government cars in
public office for
personal purposes and providing
them with the option of buying those cars on special terms.
It is
worthy to note that the court had taken a decision to freeze
implementation of the government’s decision
to
withdraw the abovementioned cars. This came about as a
result of an appeal put forth by a number of government
employees to refute the decision. However,
the court’s final
decision was issued
in favor of the
government's decision.
AMAN
will take it upon itself to monitor the
implementation of the court’s decision ensuring that it is
conducted fairly and free of
nepotism and cronyism.
AMAN
received the government’s decision of withdrawing
approximately 2100 vehicles from an approximately 6200
assigned to government officials with great satisfaction.
The decision, which was issued on August 23, 2010, would in
turn save the public treasury
of the
Palestinian National Authority money spent on fuel and
maintenance of these vehicles.
This
came
in the wake of
AMAN’s request to the
Prime Minister Dr.
Salam Fayyad,
to address
this phenomenon that is
draining the
public treasury and
presents a
negative image of
officials entrusted with
public funds.
The
success of this outcome is due to AMAN’s full fledged
awareness campaign, which was carried out for many months in
spring of 2010 in support of the
initiative of the
Ministry of Transport and
Communications,
to monitor the
use of government
vehicles.
AMAN
dedicated its Advocacy and Legal Counseling Center’s hotline
to receive citizen’s reporting of misuse of government’s
vehicles. Furthermore, it held workshops and meetings as
well as utilized the media through radio spots and
newspapers ads to motivate people to report the violations
On
another note, AMAN also welcomed the Supreme Court’s
decision, issued yesterday, to override the
Palestinian
Council of Ministers’ decision to postpone
municipal elections.
AMAN
strongly considers periodic elections
to be an essential mechanism for
accountability at
the local level; hence the court’s
decision constitutes an important
achievement as well as an embodiment of the integrity
of the Palestinian judiciary.
|
