Pages

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Hints of corruption under Fayyad

Palestine Today reported last week that PA prime minister Salam Fayyad, who is supposed to be untouched by corruption, has arranged for the head of the Office of Financial Supervision and Management to be fired.

Dr. Mahmoud Abu Rub's job was to audit the financial dealings of other PA ministries and institutions. According to the article, he did his job too well, and was uncovering a little too much.

Quoting Al Quds al Arabi, the newspaper says that al-Rub "went past red lines in researching the financial files and expenses of the government."

A month ago, al-Rub decided to look at the files of the Ministry of Finance, a ministry that Fayyad had led. This investigation evidently upset Fayyad.

Fayyad does not have the authority to fire the head of that office, so he appealed to Mahmoud Abbas to sack him, and he did.

(h/t Ali for help with translation)