SAACB report on Hajj season operations for 1443 AH (2022)

(Episode Ten)

●      Some readers of the State Audit and Administrative Control Bureau (SAACB) annual reports on the annual Hajj seasons are perplexed; they are struck by the many violations and remarks and by the shocking weakness of financial oversight in a sacred season. The same violations and transgressions recur, in addition to a lack of transparency and a dereliction in the performance of public responsibility... by some of the staff of the Hajj mission accompanying the pilgrims in providing services to them, as well as by transport companies and some of their accompanying crews. These transgressions repeat every Hajj season, turning the Hajj season, for pilgrims, into a nightmare, given their witnessing and becoming victims of service providers’ departures from the instructions and regulations governing the travel of Palestinian pilgrims, in terms of negligence of responsibility in what is required by public job performance when providing services to pilgrims. There has appeared what can be classified under greed, selfishness, and squandering of public funds, in addition to “lack of transparency” in providing some required services, and the appearance of deceit and exploitation by some employees, whether administrators or owners of some transport service companies, and dishonesty in their dealings with pilgrims in some cases, where they exploit the visas granted to them. Others among the accompanying missions also accommodated people of their choosing in place of those pilgrims who were supposed to occupy rooms allocated to them according to the Hajj mission arrangements made in advance by the Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs... This substitution of pilgrims is a disregard for their rights — they who paid the fees — and it is a course of action unworthy of the sanctity of the task or the purity of the rites of performing these sacred religious duties!

●      The Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs is wholly responsible, in heart and form, for managing Hajj season operations according to proper procedure, and what appeared in the SAACB report for 2022 showed that the Ministry is remiss in its management of the conduct and organization of the Palestinian Hajj season, whether in terms of the selection system, which is marred by much confusion regarding adding names here and there without justification and without clarifying the eligibility of those added to Hajj registration or not. Also, the accompanying Hajj missions each year do not carry out their duties seriously and responsibly, to say nothing of the selection system for members of the Hajj mission accompanying the pilgrims. It was noted that, as usual, you will see a Hajj mission travel before the pilgrims leave the city of the pilgrims in the Jordan Valley, for example, on their way to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia — headed by the medical mission — leaving pilgrims without medical care for a potentially long period while awaiting their movement, where the pilgrims, most of them elderly, are in acute and constant need of accompanying medical care. At the same time, some members of the mission return from the holy lands in Saudi Arabia before the pilgrims depart — while the mission’s primary duty is to supervise the pilgrims in their departure and return and to accompany them. All this, and its repetition each Hajj season, casts the Ministry in a negative light, especially since its management and organization system for Hajj seasons has proven weak. Moreover, the Ministry is not very successful in selecting transport companies that enjoy credibility and are free from exploitation and deceit by those who accompany these companies each season, as SAACB reports show. In addition, we do not see any accountability for these companies or their crews for errors and violations, recovery of their debts, and lack of credibility in serving pilgrims in a transparent manner, which should lead to their exclusion after fining them.

●      The SAACB report on the Hajj season for 1443 AH (2022 CE) revealed numerous transgressions and violations; we summarize some of them below:

●      In the Hajj season of 2022, the number of pilgrims who performed Hajj for 1443 AH was 2,065 pilgrims; 1,358 of them were selected through the lottery system, 343 pilgrims were added within the lottery data as winners, and 431 pilgrims were selected under special-case provisions (without lottery), of whom 212 pilgrims were selected by the Ministry, in addition to 219 pilgrims who were selected based on recommendations submitted by various administrative bodies and institutions!

●      The lottery electronic system is not linked to the civil registry data to control the entry of registrants’ data for Hajj, and some names listed in the special-cases roster are replaced by other names contrary to the criteria!

●      In the Hajj season of 2022, despite the provision of reserve buses accompanying the pilgrims’ convoys according to the agreement signed with the transport contractor, those reserve buses were used to transport members of the Hajj mission, thus preventing their availability as replacements in the event that one of the pilgrim buses breaks down!

●      The Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs granted the transport contractor 83 visas for drivers, technical workshops, and administrators, including 13 visas for transport administrators, while the transport contractor did not provide the Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs with a roster showing the distribution of transport administrators at the border crossings and the tasks required of them, so that the Ministry could follow up!

●      Some Hajj and Umrah companies did not comply with the instructions concerning pilgrim accommodation, including the accommodation allocation (kroka), where pilgrims were housed in some rooms in the “الأرض المتميزة” and “نوازي وثير” hotels in Mecca, contrary to the kroka that had been received!

●      There was an increase in the number of beds allocated to some Hajj companies compared to the number of pilgrims registered with those companies in Mecca hotels, where the excess beds amounted to 34 beds in “الأرض المتميزة” hotel and 63 beds in “نوازي وثير” hotel!

●      Service visas were granted to 4 tour companies for the purpose of following up on the accommodation of pilgrims residing in Madinah hotels, despite the presence of Ministry and company administrators with the pilgrims and despite there being no need for those intermediary companies to be present with the hotels!

●      The SAACB team was not provided with the report of the Committee for Receiving and Accommodating the Pilgrims of the House of God in Madinah to verify the correctness of pilgrims’ accommodation in Madinah for a period of 4 nights!

●      Regarding the accompanying Hajj missions: it was observed that there were seven additional employees in the number of Ministry administrators above the number specified in the administrative and financial Hajj and Umrah instructions!

●      The tasks assigned to members of the Hajj mission accompanying the Palestinian pilgrims for 1443 AH - 2022 CE are not clear, and the Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs does not have clear criteria to determine the mechanisms for selecting the administrative mission for pilgrims, which may lead to selecting persons not qualified to perform the required tasks, in addition to repetition of committee members!

●      Not all members of the administrative mission prepared a report on the tasks they performed during, before, and after the Hajj season to evaluate the result of their participation and to use it as a reference in coming seasons!

●      There are no procedural work manuals to help members of the administrative, preaching, and guidance missions implement the tasks required of them during the Hajj season, and to serve as a reference for mission members who are selected for the first time!

●      There are no documented, clear references that define the tasks and responsibilities of companies during the Hajj season, and there is no roster with the names of administrators of the Hajj and Umrah companies for the administrative visas granted to them to serve pilgrims, by selling them to citizens who wish to perform the Hajj rituals!!

●      Hajj and Umrah companies were granted 34 visas for administrators without any reference or instructions to determine the number or tasks!

●      There is no clear role for the Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs in determining the tasks and duties of the medical, media, and security missions!

●      The Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs sent 8 employees within the Hajj mission as representatives of ministries and public institutions without any legal basis for their participation in Hajj season operations..!

●      Regarding financial matters:

●      Receipts, disbursement, and posting vouchers are not issued finally and posted (a copy is issued for auditing)..! Also, there are no instructions and procedures that determine the disbursement ceiling from the official mission advance account!

●      Expenses incurred in Saudi Arabia by the Hajj mission staff were paid without prior approval by the Minister of Awqaf and without authorization to disburse or the existence of a special disbursement committee!

●      Advances were paid to some employees as Hajj mission allowances contrary to the provisions of Article No. 99, paragraph 25 of the Palestinian Financial Regulations! Some amounts were paid to committee members and mission members from ministries in previous Hajj seasons and were not recovered from them or deducted from their salaries and entitlements up to the date of the audit!

●      Cash advances were paid to employees to cover expense allowances during the Hajj season, and the amounts charged to their accounts were not recovered after the mission ended, nor were the expenses paid charged to the mission!

●      There are a number of suspense items in the bank reconciliations, in amounts either received or disbursed, whose values have not been reconciled in the financial accounts since 2017, where their value amounted to 2,479 Jordanian Dinars!

●      The Ministry did not transfer revenues collected in the Hajj bank accounts to the main account!!

● Subsidiary receipt vouchers are not being issued, on the accounting program, for each pilgrim who paid Hajj fees at the bank, recording the name of the payer, the bank payment slip number, the amount, the name of the bank, and the date.!

● Cash amounts were received from some pilgrims by the financial department, and not through the bank accounts!

● The Ministry made payments for external transport services and allowances for the services of Hajj companies without obtaining an original tax invoice from the companies, which wasted amounts of money to the State Treasury.

● The Ministry made payments to some missions without an invoice to justify the disbursement!, where a subsidiary disbursement form not approved by the Ministry of Finance is used.

● The Ministry of Awqaf bore the expenses of renting cars for the mission from Jordan to Saudi Arabia, round trip, despite the availability of a bus for the mission and seats allocated for administrators and guides on each bus!

● Four cars were rented for use by the Hajj mission in Saudi Arabia, without confirmation of the actual need to use this number of cars!

● Medical drugs were purchased for an amount of 3,774 dinars without a Procurement Committee decision, without price quotations, without a list of requirements, and without an inventory of consumables!

● Per diem for official duty was paid to employees who were assigned within the Hajj season mission without notifying the Civil Service Bureau of their names to complete the administrative procedures according to proper rules, including deducting the transportation allowance during the period of the assignment.!

● The value of receivables owed by Hajj and Umrah companies amounted to 80,265 dinars on 30-11-2022, which were not collected during the year!

● The Ministry of Awqaf did not collect the outstanding receivables from the Saudi hotels that were rented in 2019 in the amount of 1,704,409 dinars! In Jordan.

● The value of payables owed to the Ministry of Awqaf amounted to 13,046 dinars, as of 30-11-2022, and the Ministry did not work on following them up or settling them!

● The Ministry did not take decisions to follow up the trust accounts, the balance of which amounted to 4,938,647 dinars as of 30-11-2022, which balances are carried forward annually!

● In my opinion... the repetition of observations and violations in Hajj seasons highlights the need for urgent reforms in the organization and management of the Hajj season to ensure the provision of decent services to pilgrims and to strengthen transparency and financial oversight,