Execution Trust Accounts at the Ramallah Shari'a Court, Year Ended 2023

●       Episode No. (9)

●       The reader following some reports of the State Audit and Administrative Control Bureau (SAACB) about the operations of certain responsibility centers is struck with fear and anxiety, at the deviation of these centers from compliance rules and carrying out their work away from the laws, rules, and regulations that govern their operations. For example,... the SAACB conducted an audit concerning the trusts of the Execution Department at the Ramallah Shari'a Court for the fiscal year 2023, and the Bureau also conducted an audit on (the trusts of the regular courts) – Ramallah Court – Supreme Judicial Council, for the year ended in 2022. Both reports were in accordance with compliance audit standards, and the Bureau included material observations and violations in its report, some of which we list below, noting that despite all the observations and violations, the Diwan of the Chief Justice did not respond to the SAACB report regarding Ramallah Shari'a Court for the year ended 2023!

●       Some material observations from (the Ramallah Shari'a Court report for the year ended 2023):

1.     Absence of an operations manual: There is no documented, written operations manual specific to the Execution Office, and especially to the Execution Office trusts!

2.     Absence of judicial inspection reports, regarding the work of the Execution Office related to the trusts!

3.     Absence of an accounting register for the trusts to evidence the collected trusts and those that were returned!

4.     Failure to classify the trusts: they were not classified according to their type or purpose such as: alimony for a spouse, household maintenance, disputed dowry and discord, custody fee, educational support, etc.

5.     Non-use of accounting software: the "Bisan" program is not used to enter trust data, and some financial data of the trusts are not recorded on the "Mizan" program, which is concerned with case management and not accounting matters, preventing its use for auditing the trusts!

6.     Execution records: pre-printed collection orders were not used as required, with sequential numbers to specify amounts to be paid by the defendants.

7.     Check register: a special register was not organized that includes all received, issued, lost, canceled and unused checks, with a statement of numbers and the number of checks during 2023. There is also no metal clip to store checkbooks and execution fee amounts, nor appropriate protection means for cash and negotiable instruments.

8.     Trusts bank account: it was not clarified whether there is a linkage of the deposits, or the calculation of interest on the current account, or the deposits!

9.     Archive and file storage: there is no room dedicated to storing enforcement case files separately from the sections in the Execution Office; the current room is insufficient and unsuitable. In addition, no independent archive custodian was appointed to take custody of the files with organized entry and exit vouchers. Furthermore, the vouchers and financial registers were not archived electronically.

●       As for the State Audit and Administrative Control Bureau (SAACB) report it conducted regarding the trusts of the Execution Department in the (regular courts)... Ramallah Court (Supreme Judicial Council) for the year 2022, its most prominent findings were as follows:

1-     There is no register for the trusts prior to recording them on the Mizan program, which increases the possibility of losing some transactions and makes it difficult to access guarantees easily and readily, in addition to not knowing the balances of the guarantees accurately!

2-     There is no specialized, reliable accounting software at the Supreme Judicial Council to record the financial operations related to litigation, such as guarantees, trusts, fees, and others!

3-     Difficulty in auditing and tracing revenue details, due to depositing all courts' revenues into a unified account, lack of separation, and lack of itemization of the revenue in the bank statement, where they are recorded as general revenue without specifying the nature of the revenue!!

4-     The Supreme Judicial Council does not transfer trusts that have been advertised for five years and whose owners did not reclaim them, to the general revenue account at the Ministry of Finance, in accordance with Execution Law No. 23 of 2005