The Financial and Economic Committee of the Senate submitted a report on the draft general budget law that included 63 recommendations, most notably stopping waste and reducing spending in some budget items, which could provide a large surplus, part of which can be allocated to cover support allowances for civil and military workers and retirees, and the other part to reduce the deficit. budget.

The items included in the report, which was read by the committee’s rapporteur, Al-Ain Suhair Al-Ali, at the Senate session on Tuesday, chaired by Speaker Faisal Al-Fayez, and in the presence of Prime Minister Bishr Al-Khasawneh and the Ministry’s staff. They are medical treatments that cost 400 million dinars annually, while a quarter of this amount is allocated every year, and the continuation of Government support for commodities and not for those who are eligible, support for independent institutions and bodies, and waste in some budget items, especially in drug purchases and bids.

Items also included; Institutions’ spending exceeded the allocations stipulated in the budget law, which constitutes a constitutional and legal violation, according to the committee’s report, which emphasized the need for a national strategic plan linked to a timetable to address the problem of public debt in all its dimensions.

The report called for allocating allocations for the completion of the “fast frequency” project for buses to reach the Airport Street and the city of Salt, supporting and operating electric buses in the southern regions, preparing a comprehensive study of the bidding system in the public works sector and the methods of offering them to ensure the reduction of change orders, and setting up a mechanism to charge the additional costs incurred by The project is the responsibility of the party responsible for this increase.

The report referred to receivables owed in the amount of 2.125 billion dinars, which constitute indebtedness to institutions affiliated with direct government supervision or civil and educational institutions, some of which are guaranteed by the state, distributed as follows: 460 million dinars due to Al-Hussein Cancer Hospitals, the University of Jordan and the Founding King, 190 million dinars to public universities, and 450 million dinars. One million dinars for the oil refinery and fuel distribution companies, 985 million dinars for the Greater Amman Municipality and the municipalities, and 40 million dinars for the Kidney Patients Fund, in addition to this amount an expected deficit of the National Electricity Company (500 million dinars) and the deficit of the Water Authority (250 million dinars) annually.

The report called for translating the executive program for the vision of economic modernization with a detailed action plan, giving provincial council projects and maintenance projects priority in capital spending, not slowing down the implementation of capital projects, and focusing on projects of one or two sectors at most so that there is a tangible positive impact of this spending.

With regard to the Amman financial market, the committee’s report recommended studying the impact of the income tax law on the market’s business, addressing the overlaps in the relevant laws, stimulating institutional and professional investment, raising the classification of the Amman market to an emerging market, while reviewing the instructions for the naturalization of investors, and studying the issuance of government bonds. In the market, listing shares of government companies in it, empowering market institutions and providing them with the required competencies by granting them administrative independence and a special system for employees.

He stressed the importance of benefiting more from the World Bank loan in implementing the government’s digitization plan, facilitating and simplifying procedures, accelerating the development of digitization projects that are intended to be launched with the private sector, and studying the impact of the youth, technology and jobs project, which is used to support the salaries of entrepreneurial companies, digitize the public sector, and develop skills programs. In addition to developing the personal database to benefit from it in the economic fields, including the credit rating, it also demanded the speedy development and modernization of the Postal Savings Fund, and a radical treatment of the situation of the Jordan Post Company.

He emphasized launching the water strategy and implementing its projects as soon as possible, addressing the problem of wastage by increasing its allocations, replacing old meters with smart meters within a period of two years instead of five years, transferring all water violations to the judiciary and stopping the use of administrative decisions to take a pledge or judicial guarantee from the aggressors, in parallel. With the harsh punishment for the aggressors and the speedy settlement of assault cases, in addition to giving top priority to the renewable energy projects of the Ministry of Water, and adhering to the financial sustainability plan for the water sector.

He called for speeding up the implementation of the new curricula and the development of textbooks that stimulate learning and open the way for thinking and interaction, and re-working the Queen Rania Academy programs for teacher training in order to train 3 thousand teachers annually, and building government schools through financial leasing and partnership between the public and private sectors, and the use of schools. of 4,000 schools for the purposes of community service, orientation towards education and vocational training in partnership with the private sector, and expediting the implementation of digital skills programs in schools and universities, as well as addressing university indebtedness so that it can generate self-revenue sufficient to cover its current expenses, and develop a mechanism to support universities that reduce The ratio of salaries to the total budget, support for the scientific research fund, and encourage the transition to university technical education.

The report called for the support of the Ministry of Culture to enable it to play its important role, develop a new law for social development, professionalize social work, encourage sports tourism and the sports economy, encourage the involvement of young people in the comprehensive national reform project, and provide the necessary funding for the poorest families whose needs the fund was unable to provide. , and expanding training and employment programs, as well as focusing on primary health care, setting incentives for specialized doctors working in the Ministry of Health, and reaching a formula for health insurance that has become an urgent necessity for all citizens.

He drew attention to the importance of paying the municipalities’ share of the fuel in full and using it to pay off the municipalities’ advances from the Cities and Villages Bank, and to develop a plan to address the indebtedness of municipalities and the Greater Amman Municipality as soon as possible, and to improve financial collection procedures, in addition to giving provincial councils the ability to implement projects faster by reviewing In the bidding system, the commitment of ministries not to transfer an allocation from one region to another except with the approval of the concerned provincial council, and to increase the provinces’ share in the budget from 1 percent to 3 percent, and to use the entire province allocations for service projects, and to set detailed instructions that show the tasks and powers of executive directors and their relationship with provincial councils.

In the energy sector, he demanded that the indebtedness of the National Electric Power Company be dealt with, stop charging the company the interests of indebtedness that were formed as a result of political decisions or situations, and reduce the cost of electricity through negotiation with generation companies, and in the event that they do not respond, proceed with the establishment of a national fund to purchase these companies at the real value specified in the agreements. Not to renew any generation agreement with electricity-generating companies at the end of the contract period with them, in addition to continuing the Jordanian nuclear program, especially in the field of scientific research and training, pointing to the importance of encouraging the cultivation of agricultural products that do not consume large quantities of water, supporting food industries, and stimulating the introduction of technology in the agricultural sector.

The report included proposals and recommendations by the council committees, the most important of which is the independence of the Department of Statistics, increasing the allocations of the scientific research fund, supporting the tourism sector, budgets for media agencies, developing the law to prevent cybercrime, establishing a television channel that broadcasts in English, French and Hebrew, and covering the needs of implementing the two social protection strategies. , and the empowerment of women, in addition to a gradual increase in the allocations of the Higher Council for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Vocational Training Corporation, and the Development and Employment Fund.

The report indicated that the restructuring of the public administration takes place by separating the agencies that carry out the tasks of planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and merging the ministries and their affiliated institutions according to the tasks assigned to them, after dividing the ministries into three categories: sovereign, sectoral, productive, and service, with the development of training programs for new employees, And another continuous one for workers to improve performance and raise efficiency, and review legislation and instructions governing the work environment with the aim of applying accountability and accounting principles and adopting modern technology at work.

The report called on the government to expedite the creation of units in all its departments that are concerned with setting the department’s budget and managing the funds allocated to it in order to reach a results-oriented budget, in addition to carrying out effective internal control tasks over the management of these funds.

He recommended expanding the supervisory powers of the Central Bank to include all financing companies operating in the Jordanian market, and for the Central Bank to address the distortion in the credit system represented by adopting the check as a credit tool, in addition to being a fulfillment and payment tool.

He called for drawing up a map of investment incentives provided by various agencies, projects or sectors targeted by these incentives, and their type, whether tax, banking, human resources, customs, etc., and that the investment map include the priorities of projects included in the modernization plan, and speed up the implementation of partnership projects between the public sectors. and private without waiting for the amendment of the Partnership Law, which has become an obstacle to the implementation of these projects.

He stressed that the investment arms of the Public Institution for Social Security and the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority implement their investment projects directly or by attracting technical or financial partners as needed to expedite their implementation, and use various means, including financial leasing.

The Financial and Economic Committee called on the government to send a periodic report every three months to the Senate to follow up on its recommendations.

(Kingdom + Petra)