Securing Public Funds... It's Not Easy!

● Report on Employees of the External Missions - Central Financial Administration for 2023

● Episode (No. 5)

● When you review the above report... which was prepared by the State Audit and Administrative Control Bureau (SAACB) in Palestine, on some centers of responsibility in the governance sector, you are struck with astonishment at the trajectories of implementing some financial operations, where you see, for example, that many of these operations, which relate to salaries and financial transfers, for example, are recorded for their beneficiaries without being supported by documents and evidentiary records in accordance with proper procedures that substantiate the legitimacy and transparency of the beneficiaries’ possession of that money. You are seized by fear and anxiety about the lack of regard for standards, rules, laws, and the sense of public responsibility that should govern public financial conduct, and such shortcomings are sometimes interpreted as a weakness in professionalism... but most often it occurs to you that there is deliberate misconduct in some public financial operations that are not supported by evidentiary documents, especially when the scene of such operations is outside the homeland!

● The report addressed the conditions of the employees of the external missions affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), who are present in several Arab countries including: Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Yemen, Lebanon, etc. The total number of employees in the external missions reached 9,854 employees, distributed as follows: 3,409 retired employees, 4,618 working employees, 1,473 stipends (Lebanon), 354 students. The report highlighted their numbers and the nature of their expenditures.

● The SAACB’s audit results show that the External Missions Administration suffers from weak financial and administrative organization, including a lack of clear data about employees, and the absence of a strict system for managing expenditures and advances, and other substantive observations including:

1- The Bureau does not have confirmation of the nature of the work, duties, responsibilities, and classifications of the employees working in the external missions due to the absence of data with the relevant authorities

2- Most of the employees working in the external missions are in the Lebanese mission, constituting 92% of the total number of working employees, and salaries and wages constitute most of the expenditures, reaching 86% of the total expenditures of the external missions

3- The largest number of retired employees are in the Jordanian mission, constituting 39% of the total number of retired employees

4- Some employees have exceeded the legal retirement age (60), especially in the Syrian mission, and work in the Red Crescent due to the lack of employment or a replacement

5- There is no system or law that regulates the expenses of the financial branches in the external missions, and a committee has been formed to develop a system for their expenses and it is currently being worked on

6- Most expenditures of the external mission are advances, and they have not been closed since 2017 until the end date of the audit

7- The expenditures related to the operational budgets of the military attachés are closed without supporting disbursement documents (receipts, payment vouchers, and documents such as invoices and supporting papers for the disbursement of expenditures... etc.)

8- The purpose of allocating some external advances in the financial branches is unclear, in addition to the lack of clarity on the mechanism by which these advances are spent, such as the advance “Governor’s Administration” in the financial branch in the Arab Republic of Egypt

9- Supporting documents (birth certificates, marriage contracts... etc.) for the payment of social allowances (wife and children) for some employees were not attached!

10- The Bureau does not have confirmation of the nature of the work, duties, responsibilities, and classifications of the employees working in the external missions due to the absence of data with the relevant authorities

11- There is no indication of the results of the work of the committee that was formed to establish a financial system for the external missions and to close the financial advances, whether meeting minutes, achievements, or the committee’s recommendations

● In this regard, the following are the SAACB report’s recommendations to address such violations.

1- The necessity of clarifying the nature of the work, duties, and achievements of the employees in the external missions

2- Requiring the formed committee to document its work with meeting minutes and clear recommendations

3- Expediting the completion of the financial system to organize the expenses of the external branches,

4- Attaching all supporting documents related to the operational budgets of the military attachés,

5- Attaching supporting documents for the payment of salaries and social allowances (wife and children), and other recommendations..

● We hope that the status of the external mission will be corrected in accordance with the recommendations listed in the Bureau’s report, and that there will be compliance with the laws, rules, standards, and provisions that regulate the work of these centers