EXPOSED: This is How the Palestinian Authority Silences Corruption Scandals
“The money is transferred to secret bank accounts and does not return to the Palestinian treasury.” Those are your tax dollars
Muhammad Saeed (pseudonym) was a very senior member of the Anti-Corruption Authority, which was established several years ago in the Palestinian Authority (PA). Saeed handled dozens of cases, including cases of embezzlement of PA funds, the purchase of real estate and agricultural property in the Jordan Valley and the Jericho area, purchase of real estate by a senior official near Bethlehem and in Gush Etzion, fictitious partnerships, biasing of tenders and other cases, in which senior PA officials were involved.
A Palestinian official, a member of one of the enforcement mechanisms in the PA, told TPS that a few months ago the PA decided to get rid of Saeed.
Anger at Saeed grew after security officials from the United Kingdom and the United States demanded that PA head Mahmoud Abbas establish an internal investigation unit as part of the fight against corruption, which greatly undermines the legitimacy of the PA. The Americans added that their demand is a condition for the full renewal of relations between the US and the PA.
TPS EDITOR’S NOTE: It must be remembered that the Palestinian Authority is largely financed by Western foreign aid. In other words, those are your tax dollars and euros being misused and abused by the Palestinian leadership.
“Saeed managed to greatly upset a number of senior officials in the Palestinian Authority, who realized that he was investigating sensitive affairs and they decided to get rid of him,” said a member of the enforcement mechanisms.
According to him, Saeed’s salary was cut by 80% under various pretexts, but this step came after it became clear to senior officials in the PA that Saeed was distributing many checks every month.
Following the cut in his salary, many checks began to bounce after the bank informed Saeed that there was no balance in his bank account. Following the return of the checks, police officers informed Saeed that he may face interrogation if he does not clear his debts, since scattering checks without cover is a criminal offense.
“Saeed understood the hint and decided to return to the Arab country where he lived before he came to Ramallah with [Yasser] Arafat,” the source told TPS, adding that “another official was placed in his place, who has family ties to some of the heads of the Palestinian security apparatus and is very close to Abu Mazen’s [Abbas] office.”
The new appointment was designed to hide a serious affair, which was investigated by Saeed’s subordinates before he fled Ramallah.
It became clear to the investigators that senior officials in the Palestinian Authority hold two separate bank accounts in Bank “Palestine,” to which funds are transferred that, according to documents investigated, originate from aid funds from the World Bank, within the framework of the Palestinian Authority’s aid and rehabilitation programs.
“The money is transferred to the secret bank accounts and does not return to the Palestinian treasury,” the source claims, adding that the head of the Palestinian Currency Commission, Azzam A-Sawa, who began asking questions after the existence of these bank accounts became clear, was recently forced to leave his position, as part of “re-organization” in the PA institutions.
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