Between Attention and Neglect in the War over Money

·       The clearance-bill for the Palestinians with the Occupation State

-        When the clearance-bill is mentioned, which reaches our ears daily and has grown louder these days.. it touches on the reality of a struggle among Palestinians to obtain the proceeds of their money. These are their private rights.. and the Israelis who impose the method of disbursement according to their occupation-minded.. and superior notions. And according to their timing.. they do not respect charters nor treaties nor the rights of a people under occupation. For decades... the Israelis have continued to treat the Palestinians as an opponent that must be controlled economically in addition to the military occupation... and plunder all its resources.....to subdue and crush the Palestinian will to obtain their freedom.! The clearance-bill, which reached about 8 billion shekels in 2018, is the largest source and financer of the Palestinian National Authority’s expenditures since it constitutes 70% of the Palestinian Authority’s general revenues!! The Israelis’ seizure of the monies of this bill, or part of it, or the deduction of large sums from the value of this bill under the pretext of outstanding amounts for Israeli companies and individuals against Palestinian agencies and individuals.... or preventing payment of sums from this bill that are classified as allocated for spending on the families of martyrs and prisoners of the Palestinian people, on the basis that Israel does not allow funds to be handed over that will be spent for these purposes — even if the funds are Palestinian.... — is great arrogance and racism.. and a challenge to all agreements and understandings... between the Palestinian and Israeli sides, and under the watchful eye of the United Nations...!! But in return there is negligence and omission on the Palestinian side in auditing the details of these amounts.. which are deducted by the Israelis as a lump sum (Lump Sum), without any Palestinian party verifying the accuracy of the amounts and their details... this is what the report of the State Audit and Administrative Control Bureau (SAACB) for 2016 and 2017 revealed.....!!

-        Local government units in Palestine, which consist of municipal councils, local councils and joint councils, purchase electricity, water and wastewater services from Israeli companies. They have no choice, yet most of these local units are unable to pay these dues regularly for several reasons, including: their negligence in following up and collecting the prices of electricity, water and wastewater bills from citizens, and their accumulation on them — an accumulation that Israel, in return, deducts from the clearance-bill with the Palestinian government periodically — creating a debt on the Palestinian National Authority called "net lending"..... which creates confusion for the Palestinian government that has long urged these bodies to pay dues on time to the Israeli side, so that it can plan for the country’s economic development.. and mobilize resources, funds and material capabilities for government spending in ways that benefit all sectors of society.. However, such deductions, which reached about 967 million shekels, constitute a financial blow to the government, and continue to increase and accumulate.!!

-        Most of the State Audit and Administrative Control Bureau (SAACB) reports.... up to 2017, since the Bureau’s 2018 report has not yet been published.. almost agree that local government units for the most part face difficulties and commit violations of the law in their work.. and the issue of paying the dues of most of these units for water, electricity and wastewater bills.. with the Israeli side... accumulated over decades.. is one of the main issues.... Israel deducts the amounts due from local government bodies directly from the clearance-bill.. and sees it appropriate not to undertake following up on the payment of hundreds of local units for their bills.. on the pretext that these deductions are deductions corresponding to electricity, water and wastewater bills and are due from Palestinian local government bodies... from the monthly clearance revenues.. which is known as "net lending"... noting that the Palestinian government had indicated in the context of its 2018 budget plan and financial policies its keenness to reduce the value of the "net lending" bill in 2018 to 900 million shekels, after it was 960 million shekels in 2017.. however the actual net lending amount for 2018 increased and reached 967 million shekels..!!!..

-        The continued occurrence of these violations by most local bodies and their other administrative and financial breaches recurring in SAACB reports in every report for decades contributes to the ongoing failure and neglect of local units in performing their duties in accordance with the laws and regulations governing their work...... in addition, local government units... also face the problem of losses in quantities of water and electricity that reach about 50% of the quantities sold — for which no payment is made — through theft of electric current and quantities of water by deceptive methods.. i.e., theft and transgression by some citizens.... without paying any money to the concerned local bodies..

-        The subject of the clearance-bill, which is Palestinian money collected by the Israeli occupation authorities, consists of direct and indirect taxes, customs duties and deductions... from the wages of Palestinian workers who work in Israel and the Israeli settlements.. and from imports via Israeli crossings and ports, constitutes the primary and largest source for financing the Palestinian National Authority’s expenditures.. in implementing its annual general budget.. and it finances the Palestinian National Authority’s salaries and public wages, which represent about 45% - 50% of total public expenditure... Israel previously and still continues to raid the Palestinians’ monies in this clearance-bill by deducting the value of invoices for Israeli companies or Israeli individuals.. in return for sales transactions to Palestinians... as well as deducting amounts due on Palestinian local government institutions as we mentioned earlier, which are values for electricity, water and wastewater bills that local government units purchased or benefitted from.. and did not pay in due time. Israel also deducts the value of health insurance bills for the treatment of persons who were referred to Israel by the Palestinian National Authority... and more dangerously it began early to control the ways of spending the monies coming through the clearance-bill and has begun extorting the Palestinian Authority by seizing sums from the funds of this bill in recent days, which reached about 140 million dollars, which Israel alleges are allocated to pay families of martyrs and prisoners of the Palestinian people... and which it objects to the existence of such allocations... and this is rejected by the Palestinian National Authority and the Palestinian people.. as a whole... and this is what happened in recent days!! After all these deductions and seizures, the Palestinian National Authority refused to receive any amount from the clearance-bill funds, except upon receiving the full amounts without seizure or imposing conditions on spending directions — and that was what President Abu Mazen declared before a delegation of the US Congress visiting Ramallah these days......!However, during my review of the SAACB reports for 2017, which was delivered in the last quarter of 2018, there are important observations regarding the audit teams’ report on the Palestinian Ministry of Finance.. including the official Palestinian side’s failure to review the invoices that were deducted from the value of the original bill..

-        The State Audit and Administrative Control Bureau (SAACB) demanded that the Ministry of Finance work to audit the electricity deductions made by the Israeli side during the past ten years retroactively, which will reveal the exaggeration in the estimates of electricity bills and the debts due from the Palestinian government..., and the Bureau's report in 2017 also showed the weakness of procedures for following up differences in clearing bills that the Israeli side deducted in contravention of the value of the bill declared to the Palestinian tax departments by the Palestinian taxpayers, which led to deducting an amount of 7 million sheqel..in excess of the declared value of those bills, and deducting the amount from the clearing revenues due to the benefit of the General Treasury without verifying them. The Bureau's observations also showed that the Israeli side deducted from the clearing revenues amounts said to be for purchases of water from Israeli companies at values different from the value of the clearing bill for water purchases.. The report pointed to the absence of follow-up by the West Bank Water Department of the indebtedness of local bodies and individual subscribers, whose balance amounted to 1,127 million sheqel..according to the records of the West Bank Water Department up to 18-12-2016... in addition to the Israeli side deducting an amount of 173 million sheqel from clearing revenues during 2012 in favor of Israeli hospitals without financial claims for these amounts being available at the Ministry of Health and without review and audit procedures for the treatment bill by any Palestinian party, as the ministry does not possess statements or financial claims from Israeli hospitals regarding treatment bills in 2012, which would ensure provision of the treatment specified according to the Palestinian referral.. The report also noted the lack of a clear basis for calculating clearing deductions for the cost of treating wastewater by the Israeli side, where it appears that the Israeli side deducted about 55 million sheqel from Palestinian tax funds during 2012..for treating wastewater flowing from the West Bank.!!.without establishing a clear basis for measuring how the deducted amounts were calculated in addition to the existence of discrepancies in the amounts that were deducted during the year ...2012...!!