Claims by Quarantine Hotels during the Coronavirus Pandemic — Palestine

·       The technical committee tasked with inventorying the damages that resulted from using hotels as health quarantine centers during the Corona pandemic"

-        The State Audit and Administrative Control Bureau (SAACB) conducted an audit examination of the work of the technical committee tasked with inventorying the damages that resulted from using hotels ..as quarantine centers...The following observations were recorded:

-        A professional committee of specialists and experts was not engaged to assess the damage and determine the value, despite Cabinet Decision No. 1/61/18/M.W/M.A dated 15-6-2020, regarding inventorying the damages that resulted from using hotels as quarantine centers. The committee formed pursuant to the aforementioned Cabinet decision was granted the right to engage whoever it deems appropriate from among those with experience and specialization to carry out its work.. however the committee did not engage a supporting professional committee of specialists to assess the damage and determine its value, which does not provide assurance regarding the accuracy of the aforementioned technical committee’s procedures in determining the compensation amount resulting from the damages incurred by the hotels...!

-        It is not clear what the controls and criteria are for classifying the affected hotels

-        The technical committee adopted four classifications to determine the nature of the damages that affected the hotels, and after reviewing the committee’s work, the controls and criteria on which the committee relied to determine each hotel's level in terms of the damage classification adopted by the committee were not apparent...!

-        The recommendation to compensate ...the committee, accommodation allowance in hotels ....contrary to the Cabinet decision..!

-        The amounts approved for hotels as compensation for accommodating the quarantined totaled 868,900 dollars, representing 57% of the total amount allocated to compensate the hotels designated for quarantine, contrary to the Cabinet decision, which (did not permit compensation for accommodation) ..!

-        There was no actual verification of the value of the material damages that affected the hotels... !

-        The concerned committee adopted compensation for some hotels according to the criterion of the value of material damages or the costs of accommodating the quarantined, whichever is less... without (actual verification) of the value of the material damages that affected those hotels...! This may lead to compensating a hotel an amount higher or lower than the amounts that should be compensated... and the committee compensated 3 hotels, namely: Grand Park, Al-Zahraa Towers Hotel, and Queen Plaza Hotel…..for the allowance for material damages that affected them, without compensating them for the accommodation allowance for the quarantined, on the grounds that the accommodation costs in the aforementioned hotels were higher than the material damages that affected them.! ..Moreover, the Bureau did not find that the committee conducted an actual verification of the validity of the material damages that affected the aforementioned hotels, noting that the committee did not base the calculation of the damages' value on (invoices), nor did the committee engage a professional technical committee to estimate the value of the damages..!

-        The committee compensated 5 hotels, namely: Beit Al-Liqa Hotel, Bethlehem Hotel, Paradise Hotel, Al-Mahd Hotel, and North Gate Hotel...for the accommodation allowance for the quarantined only.. without compensating them for the allowance for material damages that affected them, on the grounds that the accommodation cost was less than the material damages that affected them.. and the Bureau did not find that the technical committee verified the validity of the material damages claimed by these hotels!. This may affect the compensation for these hotels..!

·       Data on the numbers of those quarantined and nights stayed :

-        Although the committee compensated 7 hotels for the accommodation allowance for the quarantined, contrary to the Cabinet decision dated 15-6-2020, regarding inventorying the damages that affected the hotels used as quarantine centers, the data adopted by the technical committee...regarding the numbers of those quarantined and the number of nights of their stay..in these hotels..differs from the data issued by the Ministry of Health and the data issued by the hotels themselves..!

There are no necessary and sufficient supporting documents to prove the occurrence of the damage..!

-        The committee compensated Al-Karmel and Angel hotels for the accommodation allowance for the quarantined with 766,800 dollars in favor of Al-Karmel, and 21,000 dollars in favor of Angel Hotel... in addition to compensating them for the material damages that affected them in the amount of 412,200 dollars...for Al-Karmel Hotel, and 13,120 dollars in favor of Angel Hotel...without technically verifying the value of the material damages approved by the committee for the two aforementioned hotels.. in addition to the absence of (the necessary and sufficient supporting documents to prove the occurrence of the damage.)..and the committee's failure to engage a professional technical committee to estimate the value of the damages..!

Hotel handover minutes

-        From studying the committee's files, it was found that 4 hotels out of 13 were received pursuant to handover minutes, and there are no handover minutes for all the hotels, which does not provide assurance regarding the correctness of the value of the claims for damages and losses submitted by the hotels!

-        We hope that the State Audit and Administrative Control Bureau (SAACB) will inform us of the reports it will issue later regarding the follow-up of all its recommendations to all concerned parties, the extent to which they are taken into account, and their implementation after rectification....or the lack of response to them.....!

Date : 20-8-2022