Remember last year the European Anti-Fraud Office, OLAF, released its report into misspent Palestinian aid? (I do.) OLAF found
On the basis of the information available to date, the investigation found no conclusive evidence of support of armed attacks or unlawful activities financed by EC contributions to the PA budget. However, there are consistent indications to support the hypothesis that it cannot be excluded that some of the assets of the PA may have been used by some individuals for other than the intended purposes.
OLAF considers that even though the PA has made significant progress since 2002 by introducing a single treasury account for the consolidation of revenues, risks of misuse of the PA budget and other resources cannot yet be excluded. This is primarily due to the fact that the internal and external audit capacity in the PA remains underdeveloped.
That last sentence is troubling. Why wasn't the creation of proper self-auditing mechanisms a requirement for any aid sent to the PA?
Still OLAF's blindness (and Chris Patten deserves special mention for his whitewashing of PA corruption) is even more apparent now that the PA has apparently gotten around to investigating itself!
About $700 million has been pilfered from the Palestinian Authority coffers, an official inquiry showed Sunday, as Israel agreed to unblock funds it owes the Palestinian government. Palestinian Attorney General Ahmad al-Moghani cited 50 cases of "financial and administrative corruption" and said 25 officials had been arrested so far.
He said 10 officials had fled abroad but that the Palestinian Authority was seeking their extradition.
"The amount of money that was squandered and stolen is more than $700 million," Moghani told reporters. "Some of these millions were transferred into personal accounts here and abroad."
Gee that didn't take long.
And I'm under no illusions that the PA will bother investigating how aid funds might have gone to support terrror. That, I'm sure, is not corruption in their eyes.
President Bush has been criticized for promoting democracy and then being surprised when Hamas won because of the corruption of Fatah. But excusing Fatah's corruption (and terror) has been a long term multi-national effort. OLAF's blind eye to Palestinian corruption is just one example.
Technorati Tags: PLO, corruption, OLAF.
Crossposted on Israpundit and Soccer Dad.
Olaf's blind eye
OLAF was supposed to provide oversight; instead it overlooked.
Remember last year the European Anti-Fraud Office, OLAF, released its report into misspent Palestinian aid? (I do.) OLAF found
That last sentence is troubling. Why wasn't the creation of proper self-auditing mechanisms a requirement for any aid sent to the PA?
Still OLAF's blindness (and Chris Patten deserves special mention for his whitewashing of PA corruption) is even more apparent now that the PA has apparently gotten around to investigating itself!
Gee that didn't take long.
And I'm under no illusions that the PA will bother investigating how aid funds might have gone to support terrror. That, I'm sure, is not corruption in their eyes.
President Bush has been criticized for promoting democracy and then being surprised when Hamas won because of the corruption of Fatah. But excusing Fatah's corruption (and terror) has been a long term multi-national effort. OLAF's blind eye to Palestinian corruption is just one example.
Technorati Tags: PLO, corruption, OLAF.
Crossposted on Israpundit and Soccer Dad.
Posted by David Gerstman at February 8, 2006 06:25 AM