No plan to increase fees, Tayer

Members of the Federal National Council yesterday (Tuesday) passed the end-of-year audit report for 2011 but pressed for a plan to stop budget irregularities.

The audit report was discussed in the presence of Obaid Humaid Al Tayer, Minister of State for Financial Affairs, who told the House that the government has no plan to increase fees and that the budget deficit is financed by the general reserve.

Members of the House said financial irregularities have been recurring year after year despite pledges from the Ministry of Finance that these perceived inconsistencies will be addressed with all ministries being linked and the zero-based budget being introduced.

Abdul Aziz Abdullah Al Za’abi, a member from Ras Al Khaimah, said billions of revenues were not transferred to the treasury. ”Local departments collect these revenues but fail to transfer them to the treasury, Al Za’abi said, arguing that it was the duty of the Ministry of Finance to address the issue.

Al Za’abi cited more than Dh6 billion in annual tobacco taxes which local departments have repeatedly failed to transfer to the treasury. “The very same mistake has been repeatedly committed and these billions of revenues have gone to waste,” he said.

Ahmad Al Shamsi, a representative from Ajman, said financial irregularities have been recurred year after year. They were highlighted last year and the minister [of State for Financial Affairs] pledged that these inconsistencies would be addressed. But nothing has been done and that talk was meant to just silence members of the House. Our discussion are in vain,” Al Shamsi said.

Marwan Ahmad Bin Galita, a member from Dubai, said the State Audit Institute failed to attend a joint meeting together with the Ministry of Finance to minimise these irregularities.

Hamad Al Rahoumi, also a member from Dubai, said he found it strange that the State Audit Institute failed to cooperate with the House.

A report by the FNC’s Finance, Economy and Industry Committee highlighted many irregularities committed by government departments including overspending, failure to transfer revenue to the treasury, recruitment without allotted funding, illegal disbursement of allowances and failure to collect government fees, among other inconsistencies.

Al Tayer said the ministerial council of services passed a system to address remarks of the State Audit Institute and instructed all federal departments to heed the financial rules.

“The council also assigned the Ministry of Finance to draft a charter for making the budget and closing accounts and to train employees of these departments on budgeting and final accounts’ techniques. A charter for internal audit was issued,” Al Tayer said.

He added a report of all financial irregularities and ways to minimise them was being submitted to the Cabinet, stressing that the Ministry of Finance has no power to monitor spending, which is assigned to ministries and autonomous departments.

Al Tayer said the ministry addressed the recurring budget deficit of certain bodies. “Budget deficit is financed by the general reserve, which was the case in 2011, stressing that there was no plan to increase fees. “No fees may be increased unless the Ministry of Finance is consulted and a proposal is submitted to the Cabinet,” Al Tayer said.