AMMAN — The
Audit Bureau posted its annual report for 2020 on its website Wednesday. Copies of
the report were handed by the bureau’s president, Assem Haddad, to Senate
President
Faisal Al-Fayez and Speaker of the Lower House Abdel Karim Al-Doghmi on
Tuesday. The Audit Bureau’s annual report is the most comprehensive and
in-depth examination of public sector financial activities making sure they
comply with the law.
اضافة اعلان
The 2020 report revealed a
number of discrepancies in many public-sector bodies. These included the
following:
First,
the Audit Bureau criticized the mechanism for estimating revenues and grants
within the last year’s 2020 budget. The report considered that there was an
overestimation of revenues in last year’s budget where they were estimated at JD8.5
billion dinars, while the actual revenues amounted to JD7 billion. It added
that last year, revenues decreased by 18 percent, a total of JD1.5 billion.
Second, the
Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) has given financial incentives and remunerations exceeding
legal limits by almost 300 percent and without the Cabinet’s approval, which
makes the GAM legally and financially liable, according to the report. It found
that the GAM has expanded the way it awarded incentives and remunerations by
introducing more than 100 new descriptions and without legal justifications.
One of the new description was “a reward in lieu of a reward”, the bureau said.
Third, the Audit Bureau
report said that 75 tonnes of coffee beans from Ethiopia that were allowed to
enter the Kingdom were found to be unfit for human consumption by inspectors
from the Ministry of Agriculture, and the
Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
According to the report, there was a discrepancy between the results of the
laboratory tests on a sample taken at the Customs Department and those of a
second test run after the coffee had cleared customs. The coffee was cleared by
the FDA to be moved to the bonded warehouse, against the directives of the
Customs Department director-general. Goods cannot be moved in or out of the bonded warehouse without the
permission of the Customs Department.
Fourth, the bureau also found
that one general-director of a public company had received JD23,000 for
gasoline for his two four-by-four vehicles in 2018 and 2019.
Fifth, the bureau’s report
revealed that the
Aqaba Development Corporation had handed out financial
donations to a number of outside parties worth JD369,000 without the consent of
the Cabinet. The report added that the corporation had spent remunerations to
members of the board of directors worth JD45,000 for five sessions in 2019 and JD315,000
for three sessions in 2020 in addition to spending JD33,000 during 2019 and JD35,000
during 2020 as remuneration to members of the board of directors for 2018
profits. Also the report revealed that the corporation had awarded JD28.000 for
the years 2019 and 2020 as annual bonuses to employees not working for the
corporation and without a legal basis.
Finally, the report also showed
that the Financial Market Authority paid a financial reward to two employees of
the authority, with a value exceeding JD14,000.
As
every year, the
Lower House is expected to hold a session to debate the findings
of the report and demand that cases where corruption is suspected be
investigated by the Integrity and Anti-Corruption Commission.
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