Jordan Times
Thursday, August 26, 1999
Audit Bureau discovers JD4.5m public funds abuses
By Saad G. Hattar
AMMAN — The Audit Bureau has uncovered hundreds of violations and cases of abuse of public funds estimated to have deprived the treasury of JD4.5 million in the first half of this year, an official report showed recently.
In its report the Bureau detailed each case of fraud and made recommendations on how to recoup the losses.
The report is now before the Lower House of Parliament.
But lawmakers said it is not likely that the report will be discussed before the next ordinary session, due to start in November.
The current extraordinary session, the second to convene this summer, already has a full plate of urgent draft laws on economy, intellectual property rights and freedom of the press, said Ali Abul Ragheb, head of the House Economic and Finance Committee.
The Audit Bureau's lengthy report, which was made public this week, established that ineffective methods of collecting fees and taxes cost the treasury JD33 million in lost revenues.
The debt-burdened national airline, Royal Jordanian, was found to have outstanding accounts receivables of an estimated JD22 million on its leaders from stations abroad.
The report also stated that RJ violated regulations by granting, in 1995, an interest-free loan of JD800,000 with a two-year grace period to its subsidiary regional airline “Arab Wings.”
The Audit Bureau argued in its report that the loan, which was never paid back, had no legal foundations. Moreover, the Arab Wings had been incurring losses, amounting to JD2.5 million since 1995.
During the first half of 1999, the Audit Bureau said it issued 166 memos to the Income Tax Department, pointing to several inaccuracies and miscalculations.
At the Jordan Telecommunications Com-pany (JTC), the bureau found that a tender to clean the director general's wing had been given to two different companies at the same time.
The Audit Bureau also discovered violations in the rural areas electricity project — the ministries of education, energy and mineral resources, health, finance, agriculture, justice and water and irrigation.
Fraud cases were also uncovered at several municipalities including Greater Amman Municipality, the Water Authority, the Jordan Valley Authority and the JTC.
The violations ranged from failing to deposit or collect public fees to embezzlement cases and purchasing of unnecessary materials.
Many clerks were found to have embezzled thousands of dinars from the fees and taxes they collected from citizens.