RAMALLAH, West Bank – It is my honor today to announce the re-launching of the Ministry of Finance Web site. I would also like to announce our commitment to post on this site monthly reports on our financial operations on the 15th of each month.
This event is important first because it represents a fundamental step toward instituting transparency in the Palestinian National Authority and establishing the foundations of good governance. Every citizen and each observer will be able to examine all of the PNA's financial transactions in a manner that eliminates any doubts about lingering corruption and financial mismanagement.
Reform is not just a slogan, nor is political will – important as it is – enough to turn it into a reality. It requires a series of practical measures which require, in turn, a high level of effectiveness and institutionalization. Specifically, to be able to publish financial data regularly on pre-set dates requires the establishment of systems and the development of a capacity that make it possible to fulfill this commitment.
Today's event is a significant step in consolidating financial trust in the PNA locally and internationally, especially as it comes in the wake of direct international budgetary support, including from Norway, France, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
Perhaps the most significant event in this area was the transfer of $150 million by the United States to the Single Treasury Account. This represents the largest sum of assistance to be transferred to the PNA in one tranche since the Authority's inception. Indeed, I can confirm that we received this payment yesterday, less than a week after the signing of the agreement that pertains to it.
Also worthy of a special note in this regard is the agreement we signed yesterday with our largest donor (the European Union) for the transfer of 176 million Euros through the newly established financing mechanism (PEGASE). As you may know, PEGASE includes a window through which assistance will be channeled directly to the STA. I would say all of this carries with it a strong message of confidence in our system – a message which, no doubt, our people deeply appreciate.
We have established a new financial management system which links expenditures by all line ministries directly to budgetary appropriations. Therefore, no expenditures can be made beyond the available credit available under the budgetary appropriation. This electronic financial management system will cover all the financial transactions and entries of the Ministry of Finance.
We will be expanding this system to cover the ministries of Education, Health and Public Works. The Accountant General Department which is being established in the Ministry of Finance will manage budget execution and exercise financial controls.
Establishing the new financial system and setting up this Web site took a lot of focus and effort by Ministry of Finance staff over a very short period of time. I would like to extend to them my thanks and appreciation.
We hope the re-launching of the Ministry of Finance Web site will consolidate the international community's faith in the transparency and accountability of our government. We urge our donors once again to help us consolidate the integrity of our financial system by channeling all your budget support and development financing to the STA.
Allow me, ladies and gentlemen, to conclude where I started, and to address the Palestinian people directly.
The launching of the Ministry of Finance Web site is in itself a significant achievement. It is also proof of the extent to which we have gone in building capacity and developing the institutions and systems of good governance.
It is a national achievement that puts us on par with the most advanced countries in terms of transparency, accountability and sound financial management. It is an achievement that every Palestinian can be proud of.
In addition, what we are doing today lays the foundation and contours of the kind of Palestinian state that we seek. If we want to achieve a state worthy of the decades-long sacrifices of the Palestinian people, we should all – whether private citizens or future governments – preserve this and all similar reforms.
This will reinforce our absolute, moral and legal right to independence, with institutions and systems of governance that turn the attainment of statehood from a political slogan into a tangible reality. This way, we will place before the whole world new facts on the ground, facts that it cannot ignore, in the form of viable, sustainable democratic institutions of governance, free from corruption and mismanagement.
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Salam Fayyad is Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority. This article, edited for length, is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).