With the participation of the Prime Minister’s Advisor for Arab Funds and a number of stakeholder parties:

AMAN Coalition holds a panel to discuss a draft report titled: “Procedures for Obtaining and Implementing Projects funded by Al-Aqsa Fund and managed by the Islamic Development Bank and their Transparent Mechanism of Adoption”

Ramallah – The Coalition for Accountability and Integrity (AMAN) held a panel to discuss a draft report titled: “Procedures for Obtaining and Implementing Projects funded by Al-Aqsa Fund and managed by the Islamic Development Bank and their Transparent Mechanism of Adoption”. This panel aimed to provide practical recommendations that help adopt suitable measures to ensure the strengthening of integrity, transparency, and accountability during the management of public funds and affairs.

The session was inaugurated by AMAN Coalition’s main researcher Mr. Jihad Harb, who noted that this report highlights the management of aid and grants in the occupied Palestinian territories. This helps increase the support for projects and grants to serve the Palestinian people and achieve inclusiveness. Therefore, it can promote the public interest and benefit all Palestinians.

The report highlighted the rules adopted by the government to manage projects and aid granted [in partnership] by Al-Aqsa Fund and managed by the Islamic Development Bank. It also examined the level of transparency of the decision-making process related to the government’s approval of financed projects submitted annually through the Islamic Development Bank. Furthermore, the report highlighted the level of citizens’ engagement in holding officials accountable for managing that funding, along with presenting practical recommendations to decision-makers to strengthen integrity and anti-corruption when specifying and implementing projects and grants funded by Al-Aqsa Fund and managed by Islamic Development Bank. This will contribute to the adoption of suitable measures to ensure an augmented integrity and anti-corruption system in managing public funds.

Researcher Iman Saadeh presented the report after stressing its great importance. This is because financial aid and annual grants, including those provided by the Islamic Development Bank, are a public matter that empowers the Palestinian people, strengthens their steadfastness, and provides them with dignified livelihoods. This requires the clear management of grants and aid. It is also vital to define the priority setting mechanism and the basis of accepting proposals and projects submitted by public institutions in the State of Palestine. Moreover, it is important to determine the method of approving projects funded by Al-Aqsa Fund and managed by the Islamic Development Bank on an annual basis. The government should also publish the list of projects, their ways of implementation, level/extent of achievement, and beneficiaries thereof, in order to inform citizens periodically about the implementation process.

The report examined how the Palestinian government selects developmental projects offered through the Islamic Development Bank, which manages Al-Aqsa Fund’s grants and aid designated to the State of Palestine. The said funding aims to support and implement developmental projects and programs focusing on infrastructure, health, education, agriculture, and support for Jerusalem. This is done by ensuring that these projects meet national priorities and are consistent with the National Development Plan and sectoral and cross-sectoral strategies approved by the government, in coordination with relevant ministries. Within this framework, the government addresses the competent ministries to determine the lists of priority funding projects depending on each ministry’s respective work.  

The report also focused on transparency and disclosure during the local councils’ announcement of applications for submission based on the needs of each area, provided that the ministry would approve the grants and funding. Projects are then forwarded to the Arab-Islamic Fund’s office, which verifies the needs and submits these projects to the Council of Ministers for approval. This is then sent to the Islamic Development Bank’s advisory office and afterwards to its headquarters in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The advisory office closely verifies the beneficiaries, project implementation body, components, importance, priorities, and budget, along with corroborating documentation and financial compliance rules. These are then sent to the Islamic Development Bank. His Excellency Minister Nasser Qatami, Advisor to the Prime Minister for Arab and Islamic Funds Affairs, confirmed that selections are made in the most appropriate manner, consistent with national priorities. He pointed out that the Islamic Development Bank is not a donor but, rather, an entity that manages funding, whereas Al-Aqsa Fund is the main funder. Qatami added that this fund was established by the Arab League and that the advisory office has both the power of selecting and monitoring, noting that the Islamic Development Bank is itself subject to monitoring and oversight at several levels.

Qatami: The poor publicity is attributed to the Israeli occupation’s actions against implemented projects.

Qatami affirmed that the poor publicity is sometimes attributed to the Occupation’s prosecution and other actions against implementing parties, especially in the Old City of Jerusalem and Hebron. He also pointed out that the Islamic Development Bank has countrywide projects at the level of [both] development and relief, in order to enhance Palestinian resilience and develop people’s capacities to confront the Occupation’s isolation and siege policies. This is especially done through health service localization projects and supporting infrastructure projects in local councils, as the Islamic Development Bank is the main source of developing these two aspects in light of the financial scarcity.

Al-Ratrout: All aid provided by the Islamic Development Bank is not conditional upon a political price.

On her part, Eng. Ikhlas Al-Ratrout, Head of the Islamic Development Bank’s Advisory Office, noted that there is a robust system for monitoring project performance, noting that all aid and grants implemented by them in Palestine are not conditional upon a political price.

Eng. Raed Anabtawi, Project Manager at PECDAR (Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction) indicated that their organization is an implementing party via engineering offices recognized by the Engineers Association. He added that tenders are announced in local newspapers for a two-week period, and that [awarding] sessions are conducted publicly in front of all suppliers. Anabtawi added that the implementation priority goes to official ministries who run various projects and cut down costs.

The importance of publication and disclosure and the existence of a clear complaint submission mechanism

The report recommended that the government announce in advance the national priorities and nature of projects that can be funded by Al-Aqsa Fund and managed by Islamic Development Bank. This would give the chance for all parties to apply for priority projects and obtain funding from Al-Aqsa Fund under the administration of Islamic Development Bank. Also, through the Arab and Islamic Fund Authority, the Palestinian government is obligated to publish and make available the rules and instructions related to various announcement; selection; and contracting processes. These rules and instructions should explain the work of the Arab and Islamic Fund Authority and Islamic Development Bank’s Advisory Office. It is also important to develop and declare a certain mechanism for submitting complaints to relevant monitoring bodies in Palestine regarding the way projects are managed by the Islamic Development Bank. Furthermore, it is imperative to activate the website related to Palestine and continually publish updates pertaining to implemented projects.