PNA offices’ performance declines due to growing financial trouble

RAMALLAH, Dec. 16 –The performance of ministries and institutions of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) is declining due to the growing financial crisis it is passing through, which makes it unable to pay its servants salaries, officials said Sunday.

Some 3,500 teachers in the northern West Bank city of Nablus on Sunday went on a strike and refused to go to schools in protest against the delay in paying their November salaries, which made 57, 000 pupils out of their classes.

Partial educational strikes also took place in the cities of Hebron and Bethlehem. The growing protests were called by the General Secretary of Palestinian Teachers in the West Bank, which also called for escalating the protests in all governmental schools on Wednesday and Thursday.

The Union of Public Servants in the West Bank warned that it would carry escalatory steps if the PNA government keeps delaying the payments of the servants’ wages.

The PNA, which is basically going through a severe financial crisis, pays around 150 million U.S. dollars every month to 148, 000 security and civil servants in the Palestinian territories, but the shortage in the PNA budget exceeded one billion dollars.

Meanwhile, the PNA failed to cover the running costs of the services, mainly health services in hospitals and clinics. PNA Health Minister Hani A’bdin said in a statement that his ministry suffers from a relevant high rate of debts which reached 166 million dollars.

“The debts … include invoices that must be paid to Arab and Israeli hospitals — the cost of medicines, medical equipment and other running costs,” A’bdin said, adding that “the situation is very critical and has to be immediately resolved.”

The reason behind the severe financial crisis the PNA is suffering from related to the decision of the Israeli government not to pay the monthly tax revenue dues which represent one third of the PNA budget, or one billion dollars every year, said experts in economy and finance.

Israel decided to stop transferring the tax revenue dues to the PNA budget in response to the decision of the United Nations to grant the Palestinians a non-member observer state on Nov. 29, with 138 countries voting in favor, nine states, including the United States and Israel, voting against, and 41 countries abstained.

Israel used to transfer 105 million dollars monthly to the PNA budget, which it takes from the Palestinian export and import through the Israeli seaports and terminals, according to 1995 Paris Economical Accords signed between the PNA and Israel.

PNA Labor Minister Ahmed Majdalani told Xinhua that the Israeli decision to stop the transfer of the tax dues to the PNA budget is “illegal and a real piracy,” adding that “this is a political punishment that caused the severe financial crisis and may lead to dangerous consequences.”

“The PNA right now is facing the most dangerous commercial and economical blockade since it had been established in 1994. We believe that Israel is punishing the Palestinians for gaining the position of a non-member observer state in the UN,” said Majdalani.

However, he said that the PNA will not surrender to the Israeli sanctions and that the PNA is holding high-level contacts with the international community to exert pressure on Israel to stop imposing sanctions on the PNA and stop punishing the Palestinians.

The PNA is trying to find alternatives to overcome the ongoing financial crisis. Last week, the Arab states agreed in Qatar that they would pay monthly 100 million dollars to the PNA to confront the Israeli decision and overcome its crisis.

“The PNA is waiting for the Arab states to fulfill their pledges and transfer the donations on monthly bases,” Majdalani said, adding that the Arab money would only cover half of the PNA monthly receipt needed to minimize the crisis which would bring the PNA to a deadlock.

He revealed that the PNA is preparing for a national economical conference to find ways out of the crisis, adding that the conference, which might be held at the end of this year, include representatives of the private sectors, public servants and workers unions.