The Parliamentary Finance Committee recommended transferring the “disposal of waste generated from quarantine places” file to the judiciary.

This came during a meeting held by the committee today, Thursday, headed by Representative Dr. Nimr Al-Sulaihat, in which it continued to discuss clarifications and violations related to the Ministry of Environment.

The meeting was attended by: Secretary General of the Ministry of Environment, Dr. Muhammad Khashashneh, the acting head of the State Audit Bureau, Ibrahim Majali, director of reports at the State Audit Bureau, Fawzan Al-Wreikat, and a number of stakeholders in the ministry.

Al-Sulaihat said that this file was transferred to the judiciary after an extensive and in-depth discussion with the audience, where the views and observations of those who participated in the second committee formed for the purposes of evaluating and estimating the financial cost of disposing of waste generated from quarantine places were listened to. the information.
The committee also recommended, according to Al-Sulaihat, the transfer of a temporary operating agreement for a medical waste incinerator between the Ministry of Environment and a private company to the Integrity and Anti-Corruption Commission.

Al-Suleihat said that the clarifications discussed today centered on the file of waste disposal generated from quarantine places, the Environmental Protection Fund, the Finance Department, appointments, the environmental compensation program, the projects account (the Swaqa landfill project funded by the treasury), and the grant agreements concluded between the Ministry of Environment and the United Nations Program Environment and funded by the Global Environment Facility of the United Nations and related to biosafety projects for the period 2011-2020.

Clarifications also focused on employee contracts in the ozone project and the project for the disposal of substances that deplete the ozone layer / the third stage, and the evaluation of the performance of the Badia Rehabilitation Program “environmental compensation” and the projects included in it.
Regarding these violations, the Finance Ministry recommended that the deputies follow up on recovering the unjustly disbursed amounts and take the necessary measures to address and correct the violations duly, and work to speed up the completion of projects that are delayed than planned.

It also decided to give the Ministry a one-week grace period to close some clarifications and correct violations as required.

The armed forces and the attending representatives criticized the size of the violations against the Ministry of Environment, stressing the need to reduce the violations and not repeat them.

In turn, Khashashneh pledged before the committee to correct all violations and provide the committee with all information and reinforcements related to this regard.

For their part, the deputies inquired: Asmaa Al-Rawahneh, Najah Al-Adwan, Khaled Al-Bastanji and Ali Al-Tarawneh about a number of violations mentioned in the reports, especially related to the projects account (the Swaqa landfill project funded by the treasury) and the environmental compensation and appointments program, calling for the correction of these violations and their closure as soon as possible.

The Finance of the Representatives had decided to postpone the discussion of clarification related to the file of waste disposal generated from the quarantine places and deciding on it until today’s meeting, for further discussion and listening to the opinions and observations of some on this file.