Crown Prince heads Executive Committee
His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister chaired a meeting of the Executive Committee, which includes their Highnesses and Excellences the Deputy Prime Ministers and Ministers. The Committee has charged that the Legal Affairs Committee, led by His Excellency Jawad bin Salem Al Arrayed, will be examining and providing legal points of view on potential cases of non-compliance raised in the NAC Report.
His Royal Highness vowed that all areas of the Government would address the issues raised in the NAC report as a priority. He underscored that transparency and accountability, including scrutiny of public spending, are vital to sustainable reform and development.
His Royal Highness noted that this responsibility is one of the main pillars of the reform programme, initiated by His Majesty King Hamad. He stated that this served to underline the importance of serious steps to objectively address the shortcomings raised by the NAC report.
His Royal Highness added that this commitment also serves to achieve the goals of the Government under the leadership of the Prime Minister, His Royal Highness Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, to continue to address issues raised by the NAC report and implement mechanisms to prevent them occurring in the future.
His Royal Highness also emphasised the importance of effectively and efficiently managing the national budget to ensure maximum value for money, and called on all ministries to work together towards rectifying the issues raised in the NAC report and to take measures against those who have breached the law.
The Executive Committee decided to form a working group comprising of the Office of the First Deputy Prime Minister, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for Legal Affairs, the Ministry of Interior’s Department for Investigating Corruption, the Ministry of Follow Up Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, along with representation from elsewhere in government, where required. The Executive Committee further called on other departmental committees to revisit and propose policies aimed at monitoring and encouraging public spending scrutiny.
At the meeting, the Executive Committee also submitted a proposal to form an internal auditing unit at the Ministry of Finance, to the Deputy Prime Minister and Deputy Chairman of the Civil Service Bureau, to His Excellency Shaikh Khalid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa via the Civil Service Bureau, in order to take all appropriate steps and commence implementation.
His Royal Highness had called on Ministers to submit their responses and proposals for rectifying all the issues raised in the NAC report by no later than the 19th of December 2013. These steps fall within the framework for continuous cooperation between the Government and the NAC and demonstrate the Government’s ongoing commitment improving its performance.
