(AP-Miami Herald) Mohammed Daraghmeh - In 2017, the Palestinian Cabinet secretly gave itself a series of lavish payouts and perks, highlighted by a 67% salary hike. The payments and perks were kept quiet for the past two years, but news of the Cabinet decision leaked this week, rocking the West Bank, where the cash-strapped government has been forced to slash the salaries of its employees. The report renewed outrage among Palestinians who have long seen their leadership as rife with corruption. Two senior officials said the pay raise was made retroactive to 2014, giving the ministers an extra bonus of tens of thousands of dollars. A new report by the anti-corruption watchdog group Aman found that the government has improperly filled senior government jobs without advertising them, appointed officials' relatives to senior posts, and refused to disclose budgets of the presidential office and security forces.
2019-06-05 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive