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Post by Teddy Bear on Mar 13, 2007 18:23:12 GMT
A few days ago the Telegraph ran an article on a report by the Palestinian finance minister Salam Fayyad, that millions of dollars given in aid has simply disappeared and is unaccounted for. I've been waiting to see if the BBC was going to run the story themselves. I know they like to present the plight of the 'poor Palestinians' as a result of Israel's actions, and this story would confute this, and present the reality as having other causes. Well, as of today, 3 days after this report first appeared, it hasn't entered the world of the BBC, nor do I really expect it to. Palestinian minister admits aid millions lost
By Josh Mitnick in Ramallah, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 12:25am GMT 11/03/2007
A former World Bank official who is about to become the Palestinian finance minister has warned foreign donors that he has no idea where much of their money has been spent.
Salam Fayyad warned donors
In the 14 months since Hamas won elections, Palestinian finances have descended into such chaos that there is now no way to confirm whether aid is going to its stated purpose, according to Salam Fayyad, 54, who is poised to start his second stint as treasury chief once the rival Hamas and Fatah factions finalise a "unity" government.
An estimated £362.5 million has flowed into Palestinian government coffers from abroad since the election that brought Hamas to power and ushered in a period of internal conflict that came close to all-out civil war.
The European Union alone provided £59.5 million last year and sent a far greater sum directly to hospitals, power generation projects and to families in need.
Now, Palestinian Authority spending is out of control, salaries are being paid to workers who never turn up, and nobody can track where the money is going, according to Mr Fayyad.
There was no way to be certain that aid was being used as intended, he admitted. "Please write this: no one can give donors that assurance. Why? Because the system is in a state of total disrepair."
Five years ago, Mr Fayyad - who had worked at the US Federal Reserve Bank - was asked to create order out of Palestinian finances by the president at the time, Yasser Arafat. Now, he is confronting the fact that his accounting reforms have all unravelled, there is a ballooning wage bill, a yawning budget shortfall and an international financial boycott of Hamas.
Mr Fayyad conceded that until he assumed office he could not be sure of the depth of the crisis or how to fix it. He expected it to take weeks to regain enough control over Palestinian funds to restore oversight over new donations. It would take several months to begin reining in the inflated salary bill.
Hours earlier, the World Bank had published a 197-page report warning the Palestinians to control a wage bill that totals two thirds of all spending, and of a "dire'' budget deficit, estimated at £57 million per month.
Hamas refuses to recognise Israel's right to exist and is widely viewed as a little more than a terrorist faction. Last year, a ban on funding it was enforced by the EU, the US, many Arab states and international banks.
Ironically foreign aid to Palestinians increased, either carried across the border into Gaza in cash-stuffed briefcases by Hamas officials, or through a special financial channel to the office of President Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the rival Fatah faction with whom the West is prepared to work.
As a result, Mr Fayyad said, incoming funds have been widely dispersed with no central authority to monitor them. Some have gone to people who do not appear on the Palestinian budget ledger. "Where is the control?" asked Mr Fayyad. "It's gone. Where is all the transparency? It's gone."
He said his first objective would be to make the finance ministry the sole conduit for incoming aid, and to reinstate proper audits. That meant no more financial back channels or border smuggling, he said. "It's not my intention to manage the Palestinian budget system through the brown bag." The Palestinian Authority's unchecked proliferation of government jobs - growing by 11 per cent a year - is another threat to its existence, the World Bank said. Mr Fayyad acknowledged that the problem of thousands of absentee employees was "serious", but said it would take up to five years to bring wages into line with income.
He was reluctant to say how he would do that, perhaps understandably, given that unpaid security forces have a habit of barging into government offices with guns blazing, and that gunmen recently shot up the outside of his office.
Now some of Mr Abbas's presidential guard is assigned to his premises - a stark reminder of the connection between restoring security and bringing finances under control. "This will be extremely difficult," he said. "It's virtually impossible." |
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Post by Teddy Bear on Mar 27, 2007 18:18:11 GMT
BBC's notion of reporting news goes the same way as the missing millions. 2 articles today mention the dire straits of the Palestinian economics, but no reference to the missing millions reported by the Palestinian's own finance minister as contributing to it. Instead the BBC prefers to give the impression that Israel is somehow responsible for it for withholding funds, which it does along with Europe and the USA, because of Hamas's stated goals of the elimination of the Jewish state, but no mention of that fact either. "The Poor Palestinians", and as will be seen in one of the stories, the shit is really hitting the fan for them. Palestinian money woes 'deepen'
Poverty in the Palestinian territories has worsened
The Palestinian territories saw their financial situation worsen in 2006, according to findings from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
After Hamas gained power in January 2006, the government had "deepening" fiscal difficulties, said the IMF.
In 2006, resources to fund the budget were more a third lower than a year earlier, while the overall deficit hit close to $1bn (£507m) said the reports.
The government used a disproportionate share of funds for energy, it added.
Lower revenue
By the end of last year, some 75% of households in the Gaza Strip were deemed poor, compared with 52% in March of the same year.
In order to redress the situation, "strong and politically difficult measures will be needed to address underlying problems and reduce the fiscal gap", said the report that overviewed the West Bank and Gaza Strip's fiscal performance last year.
The IMF recommends that a new government should reduce the wage bill, improve the collection of utility bills and completely end subsidies for petrol products.
In addition, the report says a recovery of private economic activity "would greatly ease the adjustment process" by broadening the tax base, creating job opportunities and absorbing government workers.
It found that the number of government employees increased as did their wages over the period, further adding to governmental costs.
Unsustainable policies included a "rapidly expanding wage bill".
Resources to fund budget expenditures reached $1.4bn, compared with $2.2bn in 2005.
Gross domestic product on a per capita basis fell by more than 10% in 2006 "to almost 40% below its pre-intifada levels in 1999," said the IMF.
The main reason for the shortfall in resources was a result of lower revenues, with a proportion being withheld by Israel, said the study.
The report also found that the Palestinian territories had been crippled by restrictions on movement and access, making it harder for the government to access revenues.
Despite the fall in internal revenues, this was partly offset by a strong rise in external financing - with $290m coming from Arab donors and $170m from European donors. Sewage flood causes Gaza deaths
Rescue efforts
At least four people have been killed after a sewage treatment pool collapsed and flooded a village in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials said.
The earth wall gave way in the village of Umm al-Naser in northern Gaza, submerging at least 25 houses.
About 25 people are reported hurt but scores more are unaccounted for. The village has a population of 3,000.
Residents said the flood was like a "tsunami" and Interior Minister Hani al-Qawasmeh has rushed to the scene.
Angry residents crowded around Mr Qawasmeh when he came to inspect the damage.
Reports say shots were fired, forcing the minister and his entourage to flee the village, although it is unclear where the gunfire came from.
Israeli offer
Health ministry officials said the dead included a four-year-old boy and a 70-year-old woman.
Militants from the Hamas group and rescuers were helping to find those thought buried in the sewage.
The Israeli army said it would also help - although it is not yet known whether Palestinian officials accepted the offer.
Village council head Ziad Abu Farya told the Associated Press news agency the scene was "our tsunami".
One villager, Amina Afif, said: "We lost everything, everything was covered by the flood. It's a disaster."
Blame game
Fadel Kawash, head of the Palestinian Water Authority, told AP several sewage projects, including one in the village, had been halted after international funding dried up in the wake of the election victory of Hamas in January last year.
"We had a project to treat sewage in north Gaza, it was worked on for two years," he said.
"We built a pressure pipeline and pumping station but it was stopped after... troubles began."
Hamas also blamed the flood on the withdrawal of foreign aid.
But Stuart Shepherd, the UN's humanitarian aid officer in Gaza, said the Umm al-Naser plant had not been affected by the aid boycott, noting there had long been warnings about the plant.
A UN report in 2004 had warned that the sewage facility was at its maximum capacity, and flooding was inevitable unless a new waste treatment plant was constructed.
Mr Shepherd said foreign investment had been secured to build the treatment plant, but construction had not gone ahead because of security risks in the area.
The facility, built in the 1970s to serve a population of 50,000, was serving 190,000 people by 2004, according to the UN.
The head of Gaza's environmental authority, Yusuf Abdel Safir, estimated that a pool of four million cubic metres of water had built up.
He told the BBC that the PWA had built a small lagoon to deal with rising pressure in the main pool.
"This new lagoon has been constructed just three months ago to release this pressure. This lagoon has collapsed today because of the pressure," he said.
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Post by Teddy Bear on May 9, 2007 17:37:14 GMT
Still no mention of the missing millions as announced 2 months ago by the Palestinians own finance minister, but no delay getting this World Bank report out which naturally blames Israel for Palestinian hardship.
Bear in mind that prior to the intifada there was little or no restrictions on Palestinian movement, many of whom worked in Israel, and they enjoyed one of the highest standards of living in the Mid-East.
"Never mind that they killed their parents, have pity on them because they're orphans".
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