Bahrain Mirror: The Audit and Administrative Control Bureau in Bahrain have issued a report recently revealing shocking figures, regarding the public debt and government spending in 2014, marking a rise in the public debt, corrupt management of state budgets and sham government projects. It recorded a wide-range of violations committed within ministries and governmental institutions, including the health, interior and foreign ministries as well as the Customs authority and the municipalities.

The Audit and Administrative Control Bureau shed light on a number of serious violations committed by various state institutions, from mismanagement of budgets of government ministries, millions spent on sham studies, wastage of medical supplies and medicines, illegal funds and raises, to unlawful pay cuts.

92% Rise in Public Debt

The Deputy president of Al-Wefaq's Shura Council, Mohammad Jamil Al-Jamri, stated that the Audit and Administrative Control Bureau disclosed very concerning figures, revealing that the public debt has risen since 2010 until 2014 by 92%, which means it doubled just within a period of four years.

"We are aware that the public debt has reached 10 billion Dinars, and amid low oil revenues, Bahrain will struggle a lot to fulfill its commitments," Al-Jamri added.

"This situation is very concerning (...) We are holding back Bahrain and generations of citizens by this pattern of unjustified spending, especially in the security and military fields that have to a large extent exhausted Bahrain's limited resources," he further stressed.

Public Budget Law Violations

In its annual report, the control bureau said that ministries and governmental institutions' expenses exceeded the actual budget allocated for 2014 by approximately 33 million dinars, violating the provisions of article (32) of the public budget law of 2002. 48% of the general exceeded expenses for fiscal year 2014 was in the budget allocated for the workforce, which indicates that these estimations weren't based on a study and coordination with the competent authorities specifying what the actual needs are, which is considered a violation of the provisions of article (21) of the same aforementioned law.

The bureau further highlighted that the parties that committed these violations are: "The ministries of Health, Foreign Affairs, Interior, environment, Custom Affairs, and Works and Municipalities."

Millions Spent on "Non-Existent" Studies

Furthermore, the Audit annual report revealed that 3.825 million dinars were allocated as a budget for a future strategic studies project for the Ministry of Finance, said to be aimed at funding various strategic and vital studies, linked to the government in general and to the Finance Ministry in particular.

Inquiring about the progress of the project, the Audit discovered that there were no current studies being made, as the ministry hasn't put any of the studies listed in this annual project plan into execution, (until September 30, 2014). Most of the expenses were spent on the salaries of employees registered in the project.

Foreign Ministry Keeps Millions for Itself

The Audit and Administrative Control Bureau also disclosed that the Foreign Ministry didn't add its revenues to the specified public account, as the ministry, headed by one of the ruling family members (Khalid bin Ahmad Al Khalifa), kept the revenues it gained to spend on its expenses, which is a violation of article (13) provisions of the public budget law. The value of the revenues until December 31, 2014, reached around 3 million dinars.

Health Ministry Wastes Medicines

As for the Health Ministry, the control bureau report unveiled a serious problem that the ministry has been facing for years, which is an insufficient budget for medicines and medical supplies, for the budget is exhausted before the fiscal year ends. This reflects either an insufficient amount of allocated money or a spending rate that exceeds the limits specified by the allocated budget. The bureau failed to specify the reasons behind this issue, since there were no accurate data and reports on the consumption of medicines and medical supplies.

It was also revealed that 1,207 different kinds of medicines and medical supplies, whose cost reaches 675,000 dinars, weren't used by the ministry for over a year and remained stacked in the ministry's storehouses.

Health Ministry Sends Illegal Funds to Number of Doctors

According to the report, the Ministry of Health also didn't take any legal measures to take back the funds spent on a number of doctors who have ceased their studies, although the number of salaries unlawfully paid to one of the doctors reached 27 salaries. The report explained that there was a delay in reporting some of the doctors with scholarships who finished their study and training programs abroad and didn't commit to working in the ministry according to the signed training agreements. The report revealed that one of the delays in reporting one of the doctors reached 6 years, i.e. when he finished his program.

The report highlighted that the amount spent on these doctors reached 81.5 thousand dinars, urging that measures be done to guarantee that salaries are not sent to doctors should they not resume their studies or return from abroad to work in government institutions.

Environmental Monitoring Stations Out of Order

Concerning environmental issues, the control bureau disclosed that the five environmental monitoring stations, which measure and monitor gaseous and air pollutants, have stopped working after their contract with a maintenance company expired in September 2012, gradually leading to its breakdown. Thus, the Supreme Council for Environment completely ceased monitoring the quality of air in July 2014 in all the stations.

The report further stated that the environment control authority didn't set an annual operations plan based on its secondary initiatives and goals, and didn't manage to fulfill its strategic goal which is "to protect and develop all aspects of the environment and manage its resources."

"The standards and systems of monitoring and predicting all environmental media (air, water, soil) were not developed nor updated," the bureau added.

Electricity and Water Authority Fails to Take Action

As for the Electricity and Water Authority, the Audit and Administrative Control Bureau said that its efforts in demanding creditors of late payments to settle their financial issues "were below the required standard, especially regarding those with late large payments, as it was revealed that there are creditors with active accounts yet haven't made large amounts of due payments; some haven't made any payment since opening their accounts and others only paid very little amounts compared to the number of due payments, yet not regularly. The gross late payments, excluding government parties, reached 170 million dinars in December 31, 2014."

The report further stressed that the authority didn't take the necessary legal follow-up measures against consumers who haven't paid their electricity and water bills, except on a limited scale of 1%.

Gulf Air Grants Illegal Raises

The report also revealed that Gulf Air continued to grant a special raise to one of its employees amounting to 1,698 dinar monthly since October 2004 and didn't review his privilege to such a raise until March 2014.

The control bureau pointed out that the employee didn't have the right to receive this raise, since March 2006, adding that the company continued to grant another employee an amount of 350 dinars monthly since February 2012 without specifying the duration of overtime work hours.

NIHR Cuts Employees' Salaries

The State Audit and Administrative Control Bureau further disclosed that the National Institution for Human Rights (NIHR) has cut 41,844 BD from its employees' salaries, representing the employees' shares in pension fees and payments for retirement loans, without transferring them to the Public Authority for Social Insurance and instead used the money to finance the operating expenses of the year. The control bureau stressed that this measure exposes the employees to legal and financial threats for they are considered to be failing to pay their monthly fee payments according to the commission records. This also puts their pension rights at risk.

NIHR said it started paying the overdue pension fees and pension services and loans related dues of 2014 of a number of months and that the rest of the payments have been scheduled to be fully paid according to cash liquidity.