FNC passes federal accounts after month

Minister promises new zero-budget accounts system, showing all spending by every ministry, will make irregularities easier to spot.

The FNC has passed the federal accounts for 2010, more than a month after rejecting them in protest against breaches of accounting rules.

As they did so, members expressed the hope that there would be far fewer problems next year.

Before passing the bill, members questioned the Minister of State for Financial Affairs, Obaid Al Tayer, about irregularities appearing year after year, and other items being omitted from the document.

Mr Al Tayer said the ones left off were those that could be easily resolved, such as the failure by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to buy embassies despite a long-standing decree that it should do so.

He said other budgetary problems, such as those at the Ministry of Interior, were for the ministries themselves to fix.

Members of the FNC finance committee told the ministry they needed to square the difference between its figures and those of the State Audit Institute for the budget reserves.

They said future budget draft laws should be accompanied by an assessment of whether entities would be able to complete their assigned projects.

Repeated failures should be highlighted, the committee said, or they would continue to be repeated.

Members called for a mechanism to set deadlines for ministries to complete projects.

They also noted all emirates were constitutionally required to contribute to the federal budget. Currently only Dubai and Abu Dhabi do so.

Members called on ministries to be more cooperative with the audit institute and stressed the importance of rigorous internal audits.

The whole council agreed to pass the recommendations to the Cabinet.

The finance committee originally presented the 2010 end-of-year audit report to the FNC last month.

It highlighted many instances of spending rules being flouted across the Government.

After it was rejected by the council, ministry officials promised the committee that new zero-budget rules, under which every expenditure would have to be justified, would mean far less problems in future.

With that in mind, the ministry representatives asked the council to pass the report at its second hearing.

Mr Al Tayer admitted spending irregularities would still occur under the new rules but would be easier to spot.

"It will show the percentage of spending on every programme, and if there are [irregularities]they will be clear," he said.

"It will show what projects were executed, what was spent and what was not."

The minister said activities, costs, and human resources would be clearly defined, but ministries would be free to spend their budgets as they pleased. He said the report would show all spending.

Members and the Speaker, Mohammed Al Murr, asked Mr Al Tayer to present the FNC with a report detailing the new system, showing how it will differ from the current one.

Mr Al Tayer concluded by asking for the FNC's end-of-2010 accounts to add to the bill.

Mr Al Murr replied it was ready.

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