Islah, then the Deposit... The battle of the liberated areas with the war mafia and corruption

English - Saturday 03 December 2022 الساعة 08:42 am
Al-Mocha, NewsYemen, Ammar Ali Ahmed:

The agreement signed by the Yemeni government with the Arab Monetary Fund, last Sunday, revealed the extent of the coalition countries' insistence (Saudi Arabia and the UAE) to bring about real and comprehensive change in the financial and administrative aspect as a condition for fulfilling their promises made after the formation of the Presidential Leadership Council.

After the formation of the Council in early April, Saudi Arabia and the UAE announced financial support of about $3 billion, including $2 billion as a deposit in the Central Bank of Aden, which was delayed for about 8 months.

The delay in providing support came as a result of linking its provision to bringing about a radical reform of the financial and administrative imbalances caused by the disastrous performance of the authority of former President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, which was characterized by unprecedented frivolity and corruption, and led to a collapse in the aspect of legitimacy and on various aspects, militarily, politically and economically, which prompted the formation of the Presidential Leadership Council to try  Saving the situation and stopping the collapse.

The economic collapse was represented by the beginning of the collapse of the local currency in 2017 AD, after the then legitimate government, headed by Ahmed Obaid bin Daghr, resorted to printing billions of local currency without covering hard currency, and this deepened in the liberated areas with the Houthi group preventing the circulation of the new currency in its areas of control in late 2018 .

This prompted Saudi Arabia, at the time, to announce a deposit to the central bank in Aden of about two billion dollars. However, this did not prevent the journey of the collapse of the local currency, as the price of the US dollar against the Yemeni riyal in the liberated areas at the end of last year 2021 AD exceeded the barrier of 1500 riyals, after  Its price in early 2017 was about 310 riyals only.

The failure of the previous deposit or its weak effect in stopping the collapse of the local currency shed light on the real reason behind this, represented in the disastrous and absurd performance of the legitimacy and the spread of corruption within it, and that the collapse of the currency was only another image of the collapse of the military fronts in front of the Houthi militia.

The first and main reason for the collapse of the currency, as economists and experts gather, was because the government of legitimacy printed billions of it without a cover of hard currency, to meet its expenses and obligations, on top of which are salaries and services, and this was only due to its inability to collect revenues in the liberated areas, which go in favor of the influential in the legitimacy  .

The current Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik, after being reassigned to form the government in late 2020 AD, admitted in a statement that about 80% of the revenues of the liberated areas are not collected due to corruption, which makes the collection of these revenues the first requirement in the list of demands of the coalition countries to provide support to the bank and the economy.  .

In response to this, the Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council announced in late July the formation of a supreme committee for resources headed by council member Aidaroos Al-Zubaidi, which held only one meeting, in light of the scene of stagnation surrounding the activity of the Presidential Council since the dispute that was triggered by the Brotherhood in early August following the events that took place.  witnessed by Shabwa governorate.

Disrupting the activity of the Presidential Council is seen by observers as a deliberate matter aimed at obstructing the main task for which the Council was formed, which is the process of correcting imbalances in the body of legitimacy resulting from the performance of Hadi’s previous authority, including the revenue side, the majority of which is controlled by powerful forces, led by the Brotherhood.

This is evident in the refusal expressed by the Marib authorities and its governor, Sultan Al-Arada, a member of the Presidential Council, to supply the governorate’s revenues, especially local gas, to the central bank account in Aden, according to official statements by prominent leaders of the Southern Transitional Council, and confirmed by the latest official report issued by the bank, about government revenues during  first half of this year.

The bank's report indicates that non-tax revenues, which include (domestic gas sales), amounted during this period to 2.9 billion Yemeni riyals only, while economic sources confirm that the volume of gas sales revenues exceeds 200 billion Yemeni riyals per year.

The bank's report also reveals the significant improvement in non-oil revenues, which include taxes and customs collected, during the first half of this year, which amounted to 386.3 billion riyals compared to 114.4 billion riyals in the same period of the previous year, an increase of 271.9 billion riyals, or 237.7%, as a result of the ability to  Government to carry out some reform policies and measures.

This reveals the extent of the improvement that can occur in the event of imposing a process of reform and comprehensive and radical change financially and administratively, and the supply of all the revenues of the liberated areas, with a real reduction of expenditures that burden the budget, on top of which are absurd appointments in positions that pay the salaries of their occupants in hard currency from oil revenues, to  The side of fake disclosures in the army and security sector.