Report on Early Retirement in the Palestinian Security Forces

· (Episode Six)from the State Audit and Administrative Control Bureau (SAACB) annual report for 2023.

- From our study of the SAACB annual report for 2023, overseeing several entities subject to it, in one of the sectors, namely the governance and security sector, one of the reports pertaining to this sector was a report on "early retirement in the Palestinian Security Forces," and the report revealed several observations of violations and noncompliance with some decree-laws and their amendments, in the implementation of some policies on the subject of early retirement for the Security Forces, where inequality and lack of adherence to fairness were apparent in the implementation of some of those policies, as they deviated from the texts of some decree-laws that pertain to "early retirement in the Palestinian Security Forces," which imposed additional financial burdens on the public treasury, since that public treasury bears the difference between the pensions calculated according to the decree-laws (salary 100% or 70%) and the pensions of the Palestinian pension authority according to the pension law applicable to it.. The existence of violations outside these texts, according to the decree-laws, leads to that additional burden on the public treasury...... Among these violations are the following:

1- The referral of some employees to retirement after the end of the work under the decree, where the decree-law specified that the period of work in the decree-law is 8-2-2008 until 31-3-2008... i.e., a period of less than two months of work, yet employees of the Security Forces were referred to retirement after the end of work under the decree! Noting that the number of military retirees according to Decree-Law No. (1) amending the General Pensions Law No. (7) of 2005 (early retirement pension 100% full salary) reached in the northern and southern governorates 4,673 retirees, of whom 2,085 retirees in the West Bank and 2,588 retirees in the Gaza Strip. As for the number of retirees according to Decree-Law No. 9 of 2017 concerning the early retirement law for the Palestinian Security Forces (early retirement pension 70% of the salary), the number of retirees reached 18,026 retirees in the northern and southern governorates, of whom 4,254 retirees in the West Bank and 13,772 retirees in the Gaza Strip.

2- The referral of some employees in the Security Forces to retirement according to the decree-law, despite reaching the legal retirement age, where the retiree was not referred according to the Law on Insurance and Pensions, No. 16 of 2004, or the Pensions Law No. 7 of 2005!

- The report clarified that Decree-Law No. 1 of 2008 amending the General Pensions Law No. 7 of 2005, and Decree-Law No. 9 of 2017 concerning retirement for the Palestinian Security Forces, did not clarify the treatment of retirement upon the beneficiary reaching the age of sixty..!

3- Prior studies were not prepared in documented form to study the decree on early retirement for the Palestinian Security Forces and to state the government's objective to encourage or implement early retirement!

4- No study was prepared specifically to study the reduction of costs to the public treasury, for example, to reduce the costs of high-value salaries so that there could be an encouragement for older employees to retire early, enabling the government to replace them with younger, perhaps lower-cost employees, or even to dispense with some retirees altogether.

5- No preparatory studies were drawn up on early retirement to study the restructuring of the workforce in the security forces, which could help early retirement programs facilitate efforts to restructure or reduce the size of the security workforce, thereby enabling the government to adapt to changes in needs and priorities!

6- The impact of early retirement on pension funds and long-term financial obligations was not studied!

7- Not all aspects of early retirement for all categories were studied...

- The value of pensions for retirees under the decree up to 2023 amounted to 3,958,050,409 shekels (three billion nine hundred fifty-eight million and fifty thousand and four hundred and nine shekels), the public treasury bears payment of the amounts due from the difference between the pension the retiree is entitled to according to the pension law applicable to him, and the salary on which he retired on the basis of the full 100% salary, and the Pension Authority pays the pensions due to it according to the pension law applicable to the retiree.

- The value of pensions for retirees under the decree up to 2023 amounted to 1,841,554,127 shekels; the public treasury bears the amounts due from the difference between the pension the retiree is entitled to according to the pension law applicable to him and the salary on which he retired on the basis of 70% of the salary.

- The Pension Authority pays the pensions due to it according to the pension law applicable to the retiree..