SAACB Report on the Palestinian General Authority for Civil Affairs for 2022

(Episode Eight)

·       The Palestinian General Authority for Civil Affairs is a non-ministerial government body, established by Presidential Decree No. (7) for the year 2007, and it is a continuation of the Ministry of Civil Affairs that accompanied the first Palestinian government since 1994. It works to follow up on the implementation of agreements with the Israeli side, especially the Civil Annex...

·       The State Audit and Administrative Control Bureau (SAACB), in its annual report for 2023, presented a report on the Civil Affairs Authority for the year 2022, and recorded many observations and violations in the implementation of policies and procedures, in addition to weakness in the oversight role by the Authority's audit unit; for example, this unit does not audit the financial department within the Authority, but rather financial auditing is conducted at the directorates..... We list below some of these violations and observations as follows:

·       Authority achievements for 2022 "Best practices"

1.    Projects: Follow-up of 92 projects in the fields of agriculture, energy, water, health and the environment.

2.    Family reunification: Receipt of 3,292 new family reunification applications, and obtaining 9,081 approvals from the Israeli occupation.

3.    Permits: Issuance of 11,132 permits for citizens and farmers residing behind the separation wall.

·       Some observations, violations, and cases lacking transparency!

1.    Non-compliance with the Presidential Decree: The Authority does not adhere to the reference of the Negotiations Affairs Department as stipulated by the decree, but rather reports directly to the President of the State of Palestine.

2.    Budget: The low spending rate on some items indicates inaccurate financial estimates and lack of need for these amounts, such as travel and official missions items.

3.    Internal control: Deficiencies in the procedures of the Internal Audit Unit, and failure to prepare detailed annual reports. Also, the financial department is not audited; the oversight focuses only on the directorates.

4.    Petty cash fund: The amounts allocated to petty cash funds in the directorates are not kept in a safe; rather they are held personally by the cashier, without documented periodic inventory.

5.    Attendance and leaves: Weaknesses in documenting attendance and leaves, and failure to properly organize leave requests, in addition to problems documenting business missions and departures in the electronic attendance program!.

6.    Overtime work: Failure to follow the designated form for authorizing overtime, and excess amounts paid to some employees, reaching more than a quarter of the total salary!

7.    Recruitment and appointments: Exceptions in appointing employees on contract items and permanent appointments without following legal procedures, and appointing employees on daily-wage items in a manner that does not comply with the organizational table!.

8.    Supplies and storerooms: Failure to prepare an annual procurement plan, absence of a paper register for fixed assets, and reliance on an annual inventory recorded on an Excel sheet!.

9.    Government vehicles: Allocation of government vehicles to some employees contrary to work regulations, and failure to place identification plates on all vehicles, and use of vehicles by directors of the Authority after working hours and not returning them to the Authority overnight, knowing that these vehicles remain entrusted to other institutions.!

·       The observations contained in the above report require urgent improvements in oversight, financial and administrative procedures, to ensure improving the Authority’s performance and achieving its objectives efficiently and transparently..