2013 Activities

AMAN: SAACB Report Adds to Findings of AMAN Report on Civil Work of 2013

AMAN: SAACB Report Adds to Findings of AMAN Report on Civil Work of 2013

State Audit and Administrative Control Bureau (SAACB) has issued  special report entitled " Most Common Violations in Non-governmental Organizations and Charity Organizations".The report was issued following delivering copies of it to the parties of the executive authority.

Dr. Azmi Shuaibi, AMAN's Commissioner for Combating Corruption, commended the SAACB  publishing the report, and making it available to the public via their website. He stated that the above mentioned report was in a professional manor. He expressed his hope that publishing reports such as these will be adopted as general policy by SAACB.

AMAN Report on Integrity, Transparency and Accountability in Palestinian Civil Work 2013

Earlier this year, AMAN prepared a report on the environment of integrity, transparency and accountability in civil work. The report pointed out the existence of certain challenges facing the civil work in areas of public funds management, behavior of staff and those who are in charge of civil work as well as lack of accountability by competent ministries, general authorities and boards of directors. 

Mr. Bilal Barghouthi, AMAN’s Legal Adviser, stated that the majority of the report findings have already been highlighted by AMAN, which in turn submitted the relevant recommendations to the official parties. The recommendations addressed a number of areas, including:

Activation of Compliance with Provisions of Codes of Conduct

AMAN's Report stressed the importance of the intact implementation of the provisions of the civil work codes of conduct being signed by the majority of basic civil work organizations. AMAN's Report perceived the poor role played by boards of directors in imposing control over the compliance mechanisms. Indeed, AMAN proposed establishing internal control within the civil work itself tasked to ensure the actual implementation of the provisions of the code of conduct.

Promoting Transparency in Managing Civil Organizations Activities

In this regard, AMAN submitted a proposal to amend the executive rule of the Law of Civil Work to include the need to necessitate boards of directors to publish budgets, salary payrolls, appointment procedures, conditions to provide aids. Additionally, amendment should include boards of directors' decisions through submitting them to public authorities, including them within the annual reports submitted to the competent ministry and to provide any party with opportunity to have a flawless access to information related to the organization management. Moreover, the amendments include making sure to submit financial disclosures of executive bodies in line with the Anti-Corruption Law and issuing the relevant instructions of preventing conflict of interests and existence of same individuals in civil organizations management for ages.

Civil Organizations Activities Are Accountable

AMAN recommended the re-activation of accountability before a general commission. In this regard, AMAN pointed out the importance of expanding the general commissions of boards of directors, to be held on their set dates and to be provided with boards of directors' periodic reports. The report called boards of directors to implement direct control over executive officials, as it is pointed out that there are at times certain influential individuals (Executive Director) who practically enjoys more powers than the board of directors. At the same time, the report required the competent ministries to be liable since they are the official authorities in charge of these associations according to the law. The report revealed the existence of pronounced imbalances due to the failure of competent ministries and Civil Work Unit at the Ministry of Interior to meet their obligations. The latter responsibility is often limited to control licensing phase and donot realize their subsequent supervisory role onconfirming the civil organization's' respect of terms and objectives of their license.

A following report prepared by AMAN this month has revealed certain individuals' abuse of public funds for their own interests through customs exemptions granted to civil organizations. AMAN stated that such cases are to be classified as corruption cases. AMAN has demanded the Ministry of Interior to conduct an official investigation to review all the granted customs exemptions to verify that these vehicles are used to serve the purposes of the organization and not personal interests. Furthermore, AMAN called for holding those who are involved in such acts liable for wasting the public funds.

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