 GAZA - Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said on Sunday he expected the funding crisis that has crippled his administration and prevented employees’ salaries being paid for more than a month to be over “very, very soon”. Haniyeh, a leader of the militant group Hamas, which heads the Palestinian government, gave no details on how the crunch would be resolved, but it is expected to involve payments being made directly to Palestinian Authority employees from abroad.
The Hamas-led government, which is $1.3 billion in debt and has no income, cannot afford to pay its 165,000 employees. It is also unable to receive transfers from abroad because local, regional and international banks fear sanctions by the United States, which correctly regards Hamas as a terrorist organisation. “I can say that very, very soon we will have begun ending the crisis of the salaries,” Haniyeh told reporters. “The Palestinian government has been exerting maximum effort in the past few weeks to afford the needs of the Palestinian people and the salaries of the public sector employees.”
| It's been world-class begging and crying. |
Palestinian parliamentary sources say the Cairo-based Arab League is preparing to make direct transfers to the accounts of government employees, bypassing the government.
| Also bypassing a lot of graft, but I don't think that's the intention. |
The sources said the Hamas-run finance ministry had sent a list of the names and bank account details of the 165,000 employees to the Arab League, and that the League would shortly arrange to pay two monthsÂ’ worth of salaries directly.
Arab League officials were not immediately available to comment. The monthly wage bill for the Palestinian Authority runs to about $118 million. March salaries were not paid and April salaries are due next week.
And you have to wonder how long the Arab League will put up with supporting all the free-loaders civil servants. This is some serious change, and the Arab League isn't exactly known for its ability to stand firm over any period of time. |
It is not clear how much money the Arab League has ready to transfer, but Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait together have pledged funds totalling more than $200 million to the Palestinian Authority.
| That doesn't even cover the shortfall for March and April. |
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