Audit of the Ramallah and Al-Bireh Shari'a Court in Palestine

-        Orphans’ Fund.... Institution for the Management and Development of the Orphans’ Fund at the Court

-        From the report of the General Department for Oversight of the judiciary "civil and security".. - State Audit and Administrative Control Bureau (SAACB) ..the following observations appeared in the Bureau’s annual report for 2021, concerning an audit report on the work of the Ramallah and Al-Bireh Shari'a Court, for the years 2018 and 2019,

-        I would like to clarify here that when one reviews the Bureau’s observations in its audit report on the Ramallah and Al-Bireh Shari'a Court, it becomes clear that some of the work there is not conducted with responsibility and professionalism nor with due care.. but rather with gross negligence, and in breach and transgression of all professional standards, and the rules governing the management of public funds, in the majority of the court’s operational units..! ...despite the sensitivity of the subject of the Orphans’ Fund that is part of the Shari'a court’s work....and the existence of a principal party whose rights are being violated, namely the orphans....!, whereby the work should be carried out pursuant to the prevailing instructions and the governing provisions, ...and what we noted of the Bureau’s observations revealed a neglect of the Orphans’ Fund’s rights, when loans were granted to employees..and none of them appeared to have repaid, nor was there any effort by any of the employees or officials to follow up on collecting the orphans’ long-overdue entitlements. In addition to that.... the court did not withhold income tax for the benefit of the General Treasury on amounts paid to arbitrators, as customary procedures require..!..and despite all this defect and negligence and injustice, in some of the work of the Ramallah and Al-Bireh Shari'a Court, the Bureau’s initial observation report was also overlooked......whereby the Ramallah and Al-Bireh Court did not respond to it at all..! Is this acceptable in the management of public funds...and specifically the management of orphans’ funds?

·       We list some of those observations:

-        The court’s accountant does not comply with depositing revenues daily into the unified revenue account of the Treasury....!

-        There are some errors in recording some transactions in the court (determining the fees due)

-        The court’s treasurer did not record all receipt and disbursement operations in the register specific to the muhakimin...

-        The court does not deduct income tax on amounts paid to the muhakimin...!

-        The Enforcement Department receives deposit slips (vouchers) from the judgment debtor, and the department includes those slips in the case file without entering or recording those slips in the accounting ledgers, or in a computerized program, and disbursement operations are not entered or recorded..!

-        The Enforcement Department did not open a register for trusts, in which trusts are recorded according to their type, purpose, values, receipt voucher numbers, and the names of their beneficiaries...!

-        Monthly bank reconciliations are not performed for the bank accounts in the Enforcement Department at the Ramallah and Al-Bireh Court, in all currencies...

-        There was no compliance with preparing a monthly report on the Trusts Account... and delivering it to the Ministry of Finance..!

-        The Execution Officer did not sign some disbursement orders (Shari'a execution record)

-        Balances are not reconciled between the Orphans’ Fund account at the court and the account of the Institution for the Management and Development of the Orphans’ Fund, nor is it verified that any amounts belonging to the Orphans’ Fund were deposited in the Institution’s account..!

-        Monthly bank reconciliations are not carried out for the Orphans’ Fund account of the Ramallah and Al-Bireh Court in all currencies...

-        No budget has been prepared for the shekel account since 2012, and for the accounts in dinar and dollar since 2018, and no performance reports are produced on the work of the Orphans’ Fund.!

-        Profits have not been distributed to the entitled parties since 2012

-        There are receivables (real estate encumbrances) that became due in previous years, resulting from individuals obtaining loans from the Orphans’ Fund...!

-        There are receivables due to the Orphans’ Fund from employees who took loans from the fund and have not repaid the amounts owing...!

-        There is no accounting system through which receipt and disbursement transactions are recorded and financial reports are issued; instead reliance is placed on paper ledgers for recording..!

-        There is a trust account in the 2017 budget titled Trusts (Haifa)..and Trusts (Jaffa) with a debit balance..it appears that these are trusts belonging to persons who have funds with the Orphans’ Fund from residents of those areas, and that dates to before the year 1948..!!

-        There are errors in disbursement operations, where additional amounts were paid to persons exceeding their balances in the records...!

-        Receipt vouchers were not issued for some amounts credited to the bank account of the Orphans’ Fund belonging to the Ramallah and Al-Bireh Shari'a Court..!

-        A handover record was not organized for the checkbook used by the Enforcement Department at the Ramallah and Al-Bireh Shari'a Court..!

-        The inheritance inventory certificate is not attached in some minors’ files, in which each heir’s share in the deceased’s estate is established..!

-        Proof of property ownership is not attached in the event of purchase... or sale ...in the name of the minor..!

-        A copy of checks is not attached in some files of orphans, or the deceased, or those lacking capacity...

-        Checks that were canceled are not stamped with “Canceled” nor signed by the authorized signatory (A) with a voiding signature..!

-        The disbursement voucher and all its attachments are not stamped “Paid”..!

-        Some employees do not record their working hours at the court, as they are verbally assigned to work in other courts without any official assignment to that effect..!

-        Some employee files are incomplete at the Ramallah and Al-Bireh Shari'a Court…

-        And ultimately ....the court did not respond to the Bureau’s initial report...!!

·       An infuriating matter..!

·       Date 22-8-2022