One of the central criticisms of European Union bureaucracy is its built-in inefficiencies.
Brussels, May 30 – Streamlined procedures at the European Commission aimed at reducing processing time, overhead, and waste mean that as of this coming quarter, the generous funding of projects in the West Bank and Gaza Strip will remove the once-extra step of siphoning much of those funds into the private bank accounts of local leaders, a spokesman for the organization announced today.
The European Union’s foreign policy arm, which donates hundreds of millions of euros annually to Palestinian groups and programs, has eliminated a stage in its cumbersome bureaucracy during which Palestinian leaders embezzle all or part of the monies. Instead, disclosed Palestine Directorate chief Wilhelm Graft this afternoon, at least 60% of money arrives in Palestinian project accounts pre-embezzled, freeing up the project directors to get right to the work of squandering the remainder, either on busywork dressed up as infrastructure, or on structures to create unilateral facts on the ground in disputed territory, in violation of the Oslo Accords with Israel, which mandate resolution of those disputes through negotiations.
“We are always looking for ways to improve our processes – we know one of the central criticisms of European Union bureaucracy is its built-in inefficiencies,” he noted.
“This new set of procedures will enable us to remove some of the many steps involved in funding our overseas projects,” he explained further. “We all understand that it’s about getting the funds to the recipients as smoothly as possible, whether those recipients are people involved in implementing projects, or government officials who customarily skim anywhere from forty to one hundred percent off the top before letting the rest through to the projects themselves.”
Graft acknowledged that some officials accustomed to taking more than the 60% pre-embezzled will still appropriate or extort beyond what the Commission provides in advance. “We do have to get funding to the projects,” he insisted. “We gain nothing in efficiency if, as part of the allocation and pre-embezzlement process, we must conduct research to tailor the levels of pre-embezzlement to the track records of the prospective Palestinian officials – especially since many of them show little consistency in how much they take off the top.”
Palestinian officials and activists expressed skepticism regarding the efficacy of the impending measure. “Uh, I don’t think [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud] Abbas, or anyone else, will care that there’s already money in his Swiss accounts,” opined commentator Itbah al-Yahud. “This sounds like just another EU-type solution to a problem that ends up making the problem worse.”
Please support our work through Patreon.
Buy In The Biblical Sense: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B92QYWSL
Fabulous Facebook Comments!
Glorious Google+ Comments!
Wordpress Comments