Corruption in Ministries
hmmmm, from the YO:
The Executive Manager of the Tourism Promotion Board (TPB) has been referred by Ministry of Tourism to the Prosecutor of Public Money charged with fraud.
The executive manager was charged with transferring YR15 million to a false account for the purpose of taking part in an exhibition in the British city of Manchester, but that the organization never took part.
The minister, Nabil Al-Faqih said that it was a ‘precautionary procedure’, and that they would wait for prosecution team to complete their investigation.
A letter was sent to the finance ministry requesting changing the executive and financial managers of the TPB, but the ministry turned the request down, insisting they stay in their position.
However, Al-Faqih added that he would be forced to suspend then if they Ministry of Finance did not respond to his demand.
In a meeting on Sunday in the TPB, Al-Faqih confirmed that the organization would b restructured based on legal measures.
A vice-chairman of the board was elected from the private sector for the first time. The board of the fund was also elected in a secret vote.
He said it was agreed to establish a tourism investment company to encourage investment in important tourist sites that are currently rarely visited.
Earlier, the Ministries of Media, Culture and Tourism had promised before Parliament to refer all those suspected of corruption to the prosecution of public money.
This came in discussions of the report presented by the Media, Culture and Tourism committee in their study of the reports of Central Organization of Control and Audit (COCA).
The COCA reports showed that total violations in the Ministry of Media and other institutions under its umbrella reached YR 2.64 billion until 2003, while in the Ministry of Culture and Tourism it reached YR 733 million.
The two ministers of Media and Tourism Hassan Al-Lowzi and Nabil Al-Faqih, demanded specific names of those accused of corruption so that they could be questioned.
They repeated their desire to stand beside Parliament in the fight against corruption.
The Deputy Minister of Culture stressed the necessity to tackle violations starting from as far back as 1990.
Parliament demanded additional recommendations to the Media Committee to inform Parliament of the names and positions of those involved in corruption, estimated to be as high as YR3billion.
This recommendation was proposed by MP Sakhr Al-Wajeeh from the ruling PGC party. This procedure must be done within a week to refer them all to prosecution of public money for investigation, and then for trial at a specialized court.
MP Sakhr Al-Wajeeh and MP Abdul-Karim Shaiban asked why the report had been delayed for more than a year before it reached the agenda of Parliament.
Abdul-Razaq Al-Hajari said that the most widely read newspapers in Yemen and liked by many people were the most corrupted, according to the COCA report.
