A
large number of the Palestinian Legislative Council members, legal
experts and economists attended a workshop organized by Aman on June
4th, 2008. During the workshop, participants stressed the
importance of issuing a special law regulating the work of the
Palestinian Investment Fund, its relationship with the official
parties and the Palestinian private sector institutions, in order to
determine its legal references and being subject to the Official
censorship mechanisms. Also, they stressed on the necessity of the
separation between the political and executive levels of the Fund
management.
The workshop, which was attended also by
the Director General of the Fund, Dr. Mohammad Mustafa, discussed
the legal framework that regulates the Investment Fund and the
official monitoring mechanisms on its work. Participants stressed on
the importance of opening a discussion on many of the problems with
legal dimensions concerning the Fund as it manages the public fund,
particularly with regard to the authority of the Director-General of
the Fund due to his capacity as an economic consultant for the
President and the Director-General of the Fund, in addition to the
problematic appointment that is made by the President and not by the
Board of the Fund
Dr. Azmi Shuibi, The General Commissioner
for Anti-Corruption Affairs- Aman,
opened the workshop by emphasizing that conducting the workshop
isn’t in any way to question work of the Fund and its current
integrity and transparency. Rather, he added, the workshop aims to
raise a number of remarks about the work of the Fund and its legal
framework of reference, as it is considered as a public shareholding
limited company, registered officially with the Palestinian National
Authority and is managing the public fund
Mr.
Mustafa made a presentation on the Fund and its achievements at
various internal and external levels, explaining that the Fund
reached a very advanced professional level, through devoting
transparency in the investment work, in addition to the transfer of
the Fund's headquarter to the Palestinian territories. He added that
the Fund has a strategic plan that seeks to transfer the majority
and variety of foreign investment to the Palestinian territories,
which will contribute to maximizing profits, which reached last year
up to nearly 262 million dollars, despite the challenges the Fund
has faced.
He also pointed
out the relationship with the various official institutions,
including the professional relationship with the General
Monitoring Bureau, stressing the
willingness of the Fund to cooperate fully with the General
Monitoring Bureau, especially that the
Fund has an advanced financial and administrative control system.
Moreover, Mr. Mustapha stated that there are many legal challenges
that face the Fund, including lawsuits against the Palestine
Liberation Organization and the Palestinian National Authority,
which aim at undermining the Fund, in addition to the existence of
internal political enticements
The Reform and Change
representative, a PLC member, Dr. Ayman Daraghmeh, stressed the
importance of the re-evaluation of the Fund's professional work to
ensure its continuity and not linking its development with the
internal political developments, in addition to the importance of
the work of the Fund to be subjected to the control of the
Legislative Council.
From his side,
Fatah representative, a PLC member, Dr.
Abdullah Abdullah pointed out the importance of the achievements
that the Fund concluded during the last period. He also stressed on
the importance of taking into consideration the reality of having
the Palestinian people under occupation with regard to the
development and growth projects.
The Popular Front’s
representative, PLC member Khaleda Jarrar, agreed with PLC members
Daraghameh and Abdullah, stressing the importance of imposing
control over the nature of projects undertaken by the Fund to ensure
that they are not harming the limited- capacity investment groups.
As for the economic expert Dr. Nasr Abdel
Karim, he called to benefit from the UAE experience in establishing
what is known as "sovereign investment funds," and emphasized the
importance of devoting the role of the Palestinian Investment Fund
in protecting the money of the Palestinian people because it was
established for this purpose.
The
Palestinian Investment Fund’s board member, Dr. Mazen Sinokrot,
asked to give the Fund a chance to continue its work, especially
after the great achievements made and enabling the Fund to rebuild
itself on professional basis, taking into consideration security and
the current political situation in dealing with all problems related
to the Fund’s work.
