Making a Difference in the Citizen’s Life in Palestine

Legislative oversight of the executive authority’s actions is a fundamental and necessary factor in the management of public funds and in building good governance.... And the oversight meant, as stated in the speech of Counselor Eyad Tim, President of the State Audit and Administrative Control Bureau (SAACB), in his presentation of the Bureau’s 2020 report, is to ensure transparency, integrity, and clarity in public performance, and to enhance the credibility and confidence in the state’s financial, administrative, and economic policies.

Oversight is usually conducted in all countries through elected representative legislative councils that represent the people..... But in Palestine, and in light of the absence of the Legislative Council for many years... the responsibility for performing this financial and administrative oversight role was entrusted to the State Audit and Administrative Control Bureau (SAACB), which had been established by Special Law No. 15 in 2004 and amended by Law No. 18 in 2017.... with the responsibility of performing this oversight role over government work and the management of public funds... according to defined authorities...!

At the end of the strategic plan for the years 2017-2021, which the Bureau adopted under the title "Making a Difference in the Citizen’s Life," Counselor Tim added in his remarks while presenting the Bureau’s 2020 annual report, which runs to 298 pages, that the Bureau, in light of the major challenges in 2020 such as the Corona pandemic and the withholding of Palestinian funds by the Israeli occupation authorities, audited the management of public funds in the state of emergency. Emergency reports are generally fundamentally linked to ensuring that entities subject to the Bureau’s authority comply with the provisions of the prevailing laws and regulations, and the Bureau sought in its annual report to improve the quality of the financial data issued by the Ministry of Finance by auditing the State of Palestine’s final accounts for the years 2016-2017.

However, problems remain in the role of the State Audit and Administrative Control Bureau regarding the obligation of entities subject to it under the law... the Bureau’s authorities remain limited, and its reports are still merely recommendations... not fully binding..!. Compliance with responding to the State Audit Bureau’s reports reached a rate for the 115 reports for 2020, where only 47 entities out of the entities subject to the Bureau’s reports for 2020 (numbering 115 reports) complied with responding within the legally specified period, i.e., about 47%..!.. As for the entities that responded after the period expired, they numbered 29 entities, i.e., 25%..!, and the entities that did not respond at all reached 25%... This illustrates the existence of problems in the degree of compliance with the Bureau’s recommendations.. and the lack of seriousness in correcting the paths of some of these entities in public work. It is clear, for example, that the auditing of the state’s final accounts issued by the Ministry of Finance is still submitted late... as the latest final accounts included in the Bureau’s 2020 report are the final accounts for the years 2016-2017... and the responsibility for the delay lies with the responsible center that issues them, namely the Ministry of Finance and Planning.

The Bureau also issued successive reports on the work of the General Petroleum Corporation because of the relative importance related to the size of funds and risks, noting that the Corporation’s funds constitute 40% of the clearance revenues..... It is clear, for example in this sector, that the observations, violations, and problems with the Corporation’s operations and the recommendations are repeated annually with each report... and therefore, it is evident that there is a degree of noncompliance with the Bureau’s recommendations.. and thus the risks are large especially since the size of the funds at the Corporation is large..!

There is also a repetition of recommendations in the Bureau’s reports regarding the health services provided by the Ministry of Health, such as health insurance, emergency and outpatient care, the management of medical supplies, medical devices and laboratories, and the Ministry of Health’s oversight of private hospitals and food and medicines and referrals.

There are general directorates in the Bureau that issue their oversight reports by sector; for example, there is the General Directorate of Economic Oversight, which principally supervises in this sector: the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of National Economy, the Palestinian Investment Fund, the Palestine Monetary Authority and the Anti-Corruption Commission. One of the most prominent tasks of the General Directorate of Economic Oversight, and the number of its reports for this year 2020, seven, is auditing the State of Palestine’s final accounts...!

There is the General Directorate of Governance Oversight “Civil and Security”.... and many other general directorates that cover in their reports other sectors, such as social and cultural services... and non-governmental organizations and local governance, which accounted for the largest share of the issued reports - 60 reports - where recommendations are repeated and new ones are renewed in each annual report of the Bureau regarding local governance, which includes 571 entities subject to the Bureau’s oversight...!

I will review some of the reports for some important key sectors and centers of responsibility contained in the Bureau’s 2020 report, in addition to reviewing the Bureau’s observations and recommendations regarding the state’s final accounts.... in a series of upcoming episodes on my page here on Facebook.. to inform interested friends and others, and to learn how they judge the existence of this difference in the citizen’s life in Palestine..., as a result of the Bureau’s annual reports...... and its recommendations and indications and suggestions, and reading between the lines of its recommendations..... which filled the pages of the report, which was... and to be truthful, a great effort was clearly made by the Bureau.... and it provided important information about the level of public fund management and the degree of compliance of those responsible with the law and the quality of information and data provided by some centers of responsibility, such as the Ministry of Finance.. primarily... ..!.. It is an important and responsible report and deserves being taken into account.. for participation and pressure by the public... to correct the wrong paths in the management of public funds..... with respect. !