رام الله – 1/9/2022 – أطلقت المبادرة الفلسطينية لتعميق الحوار العالمي والديمقراطية "مفتاح" أمس الأربعاء موازنة المواطن الرقمية للعام 2022 بحضور ومشاركة فرق الموازنة والتخطيط في مختلف الوزارات، تم خلالها استعراض موازنات المواطن لست مراكز مسؤولية، وتجربة "مفتاح" مع الوزارات الشريكة، وعرض مقارنة تقارير الإنفاق الفعلي النصف سنوية والسنوية لمراكز المسؤولية المختلفة.

وفي كلمتها الترحيبية بالحضور أكدت د. تحرير الأعرج المديرة التنفيذية لمؤسسة "مفتاح" على الجهود التي بذلتها المؤسسة على صعيد الضغط والمناصرة واستمرار هذه الجهود انسجاماً مع توجهاتها الاستراتيجية من خلال إدراج معايير العدالة الاجتماعية في السياسات المالية العامة التي تتطلب زيادة وعي المواطن بحقوقه من خلال استمرار إصدار موازنات المواطن وتقارير الإنفاق الحكومي لمختلف مراكز المسؤولية، حيث ساهمت موازنة المواطن في تحديد العديد من المؤشرات للفجوات الاجتماعية القائمة، وشكلت مرجعية لدراسة تلك الفجوات وتبيان انعكاسها على الفئات المهمشة والمنكشفة، ومدى انحياز الحكومة لهذه الفئات".

في حين، تطرقت لميس الشعيبي الحنتولي مديرة برنامج الديمقراطية والحكم الصالح في "مفتاح"، في مداخلتها إلى دور "مفتاح" وعلاقاتها مع مختلف الوزارات بما يحقق تعزيز انفتاح هذه الوزارات في نشر البيانات المالية، ونضوج العلاقة بين المجتمع المدني والحكومة، والتأثير في السياسات المالية على مستوى الموازنات والانفاق وتطوير العمل بها باتجاه رقمنتها وصولاً إلى ممارسات صحيحة لمعايير الشفافية الدولية، والتأثير في السياسات التنفيذية تماشياً مع الاستراتيجيات الوطنية للإصلاح، إضافة إلى دعم "مفتاح" لتوفير بيئة حوارية بين الجهات ذات العلاقة استناداً إلى الأدلة المتمثلة بالأرقام والبيانات المالية الدقيقة والتي تشكل قاعدة أساس في المساءلة المجتمعية .

وتم خلال اللقاء استعراض مكونات المنصة الإلكترونية الخاصة بموازنة المواطن، والتي تضم عدداً من مراكز المسؤولية في القطاع الاجتماعي، بالإضافة لموازنة المواطن العامة، حيث تعكس المنصة تحولاً في نشر الموازنات من خلال رقمنتها، والتي بدورها تعزز من مستوى انفتاح الوزرات على الفئات المستفيدة من خدماتها ووصول المواطنين إلى البيانات المتعلقة بالإنفاق العام. كما تتضمن المنصة أدوات تفاعلية تمكن زوارها من إرسال مقترحاتهم أو شكاواهم أو اعتراضاتهم بخصوص الإنفاق على مراكز المسؤولية المختلفة.

وتخلل اللقاء مناقشة للتوصيات التي تقدمت بها فرق الموازنات والتخطيط في مراكز المسؤولية التي شاركت في اللقاء، والتي أكدت على أهمية المنصة من خلال تزويدها بالأدوات التي تعمل على تبسيط عرض برامج الوزارات والموازنات المخصصة لها ومقارنتها مع الإنفاق الفعلي على هذه المراكز، كما اشتملت التوصيات على أهمية التأكد من توفير شروط استدامة المنصة والتنسيق مع الوزارات لتزويدها بالبيانات اللازمة بشكل دوري ومنتظم، من خلال استصدار قرار من مجلس الوزراء بتبني المنصة الرقمية لموازنة المواطن.

بدوره، قال حسن محاريق مسؤول في وحدة الحوار والسياسات في "مفتاح"، أن إطلاق هذه الموازنة يأتي انسجاماً مع التوجهات الاستراتيجية ل "مفتاح" والمتمثلة باستمرار جهود الضغط والمناصرة لضمان العدالة الاجتماعية والمساواة في بلورة السياسات العامة، وتعزيز الحكم الرشيد في فلسطين حيث عملت "مفتاح" وبالتعاون مع UNDP، منذ بداية العام على رقمنة موازنة المواطن، بالشراكة مع عدد من مراكز المسؤولية ضمن القطاع الاجتماعي، بهدف استدامة وتطوير معايير الشفافية الدولية للموازنات، وتعزيز انفتاح المؤسسات الحكومية على الجمهور من خلال إصدار البيانات المالية بشكل دوري ومنتظم، والمتعلقة بمخصصات الانفاق الحكومي على برامج الخدمات الاجتماعية، وتحسين مستوى وصول المواطنين إليها من خلال توفيرها الكترونياً.

Ramallah – 1/9/2022 – MIFTAH recently launched the 2022 digital citizens’ budget in coordination with the budget and planning teams from various line ministries. The citizens’ budgets of six ministries were presented during the meeting. MIFTAH shared its experiences with partner ministries and biannual and annual actual spending reports for the various ministries were compared.

MIFTAH Executive Director, Dr. Tahreer Al Araj addressed advocacy and lobbying efforts in line with MIFTAH’s strategic approaches, to include standards of social justice in public fiscal policies. This, she said, requires citizens to be aware of their rights, which includes the publication of citizens’ budgets and government spending reports for various public institutions. Araj maintained that citizens’ reports help to identify several indicators pointing to social gaps and constitute a reference for how these gaps reflect on marginalized and vulnerable groups including the government’s bias towards them.

Furthermore, MIFTAH’s Democracy and Good Governance Program Director, Lamis Shuaibi-Hantouli addressed MIFTAH’s role and relationship with the various ministries in encouraging them to be more open in the publication of their fiscal statements. She also touched on the evolving relationship between civil society and the government and the impact of these fiscal policies at the level of budgets and public spending, in addition to development towards digitalization. She discussed the impact of these policies vis-à-vis good practices pertaining to international transparency, in addition to influencing executive policies in line with national reform strategies. In addition, Shuaibi-Hantouli spoke about MIFTAH’s support in providing a climate of dialogue between the relevant parties, based on evidence from accurate financial facts and figures, which she said comprised the basis for social accountability.

The e-platform for citizens’ budgets was then presented, which includes several social sector institutions and the general citizens’ budget. The platform reflects a transformation in how budgets are released. Their digitalization promotes more candidness among ministries about their services and how citizens can access data on public expenditures. The platform also includes interactive tools that allow its visitors to send in suggestions, complaints or objections regarding expenditures to the various public institutions.

The participants discussed the recommendations by the ministries’ budget and planning teams, which stressed on the importance of providing the platform with tools to simplify the ministries’ programs and budgets to the public and compare them to the actual spending of these institutions. The recommendations also said it was imperative to guarantee the platform’s sustainability and coordinate with ministries to regularly provide it with the necessary data, which first requires a Cabinet decision to adopt a citizens’ budget e-platform.

MIFTAH’s Dialogue Unit head, Hassan Mahareeq, said the launching of this budget was in line with MIFTAH’s strategic approaches to continue advocacy and lobbying efforts in order to guarantee social justice and equality in the development of public policies. He also said the organization sought the promotion of good governance in Palestine. To this end, Mahareeq explained that MIFTAH, in cooperation with UNDP, has worked on digitizing the citizens’ budget, in partnership with several ministries from the social sector, since the start of this year. He said the overall objective was the sustainability and development of international transparency standards for budgets and to promote more openness from government institutions towards the public, by regularly releasing financial statements pertaining to government spending allocations on social services programs. Another objective, he maintained was to improve citizens’ access to these services through this e-platform.

Ramallah – Civil society organizations, headed by MIFTAH, recently completed discussions on the Value Added Tax (VAT) bill with the Customs, Excise and VAT Department and the gender unit at the Ministry of Finance. The discussions are part of MIFTAH’s strategic course of action aimed at impacting public policies to guarantee citizens’ rights for all sectors of Palestinian society, to enhance the principles of good governance in official institutions and promote social justice in developing fiscal policies.

On behalf of CSOs, MIFTAH presented further comments to those previously presented on the most recent version of the VAT draft law, which included the following:

• Article 4, Paragraph 1, stipulates tax exemption for all non-profit organizations, yet Paragraph 2 of Article 4 stipulates: “The tax shall be imposed on non-profit organizations according to rates within the provisions of Article 2 of this law, to any activities that compete with the private sector.” This achieves the goal of the private sector in subjecting institutions to other taxes, on the premise that these are profitable activities, which compete with the private sector.

• A call to amend Article 2, by preparing a list that reflects tax progression rates on commodities and services, to promote fair distribution, particularly regarding VAT reduction on basic commodities and services; the list will be included as an addendum to the law.

• Articles in the penal code were pointed out, which lack principles of the rule of law towards the ‘employer”, demanding that its provisions abide by the provisions of the amended Palestinian Basic Law.

MIFTAH commented that while it appreciated the demands previously made, the abovementioned comments were key to promoting social justice in fiscal policies.

Meanwhile, representative for the Customs, Excise and VAT Department, Loay Hanash, said his department was open to discussions and cooperation with civil society to implement amendments to the articles in consultation with CSOs, maintaining that the following amendments were positively received:

• Amendment to Article 4, Paragraph 2 of the bill, which stipulates: Taxes shall be imposed on non-profit organizations according to tax rates within the provisions of Article 2 of this law, on any activities that infringe on the private sector.”

• An agreement that MIFTAH, in consultation with CSO’s, will prepare a list of commodities and VAT percentages towards achieving social justice, through progressive tax rates. The Ministry of Finance said it was prepared to adopt this within the framework of the law.

Within this context, MIFTAH stressed on fostering a dialogue-conducive environment with government and official parties as a foundation for influencing public policies and for adopting social justice as a basis for developing policies and influencing decision-makers in favor of citizens’ rights, which guarantee the protection of rights for marginalized and underprivileged social sectors.

Gaza: 19/8/2022 – MIFTAH recently signed a cooperation agreement and memo of understanding with the University of Palestine in Gaza City. This is part of its efforts to empower and enable young leaders to participate in public and political life and to create an interactive environment inside universities based on the principles of democracy, equality, respect for public freedoms and against discrimination and marginalization.

The cooperation agreement is part of MIFTAH’s Democracy and Good Governance Program and signed in partnership with UNFPA. The program includes the development of a discrimination index in Palestinian universities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as a yardstick for areas of discrimination and to highlight the gaps in political, social, economic and cultural rights among university students. This will also provide valuable information and data for the development of practical measures to be utilized by decision-makers in universities for reforming policies and procedures aimed at cementing democratic values.