In its recent meeting, the council of ministers approved a project for an additional credit during the current financial year at YR 66 billion.

Even with the profits in oil and other resources the country has been getting, it still relies on donors to finance the different development projects as loans and donation packages to the country have reached $800 million, according to the annual reports presented by the Central Administration for Control and Auditing (COCA).

As to the crimes of wasting and pillaging the public money, COCA listed over 1165 crimes of waste for public money over the last three years. The total amount of money wasted during the last three years are as follows: YR19 billion, $14 million, 3 million euros and 2 million marcs, together with 18 cars and large areas of lands.

Despite such waste and pillage of public money and resources, concerned authorities have taken no serious measures to stop this pillage and not one official has been held into account for the violations.

According to the control reports issued by COCA and presented to parliament last Saturday, the implementation at both central and local levels as for the operational budgets of economic units, private and mixed centers institutions has seen a deficit mounting to YR 294 billion and at 17 percent of the actual use.

COCA chairman Abdullah Al-Sanafi pointed out that last year's deficit as an absolute value does exceed the deficit of the last ten years.

The control reports also revealed that the actual implementation of 2007 budget as for expenditures reached YR 1775 billion, with total economies of YR 146 billion and at 8 percent of the total indexation.

The reports further revealed shortcomings in using resources, with a slight control of the current expenditure against a decrease in the capital and investing expenditure at 21 percent, while it was 24 percent in 2006.

These shortcomings are primarily caused by increasing the valorization of oil derivatives to about YR 402 billion, representing 8 percent of the GDP and 23 percent of general uses for the last year.

This surpasses by far what is spent on education, health, social services and water and electricity sectors which reached only YR 398 billion. Thus, the budget does not translate a serious tendency to rationalize the current spending.

Minister of Finance Noman Al-Suhaibi defended the budget before parliament, referring to the burdens of Sa'ada war renewal together with the entitlements of those reinstated in the army and security sector as well as the implementation of the second phase of wages strategy and opening an additional credit for supporting oil derivatives.

Hinting the implementation of the budget will result in a deficit of YR 467 billion, Al-Suhaibi noted that there were declines in state revenues in 2007 and the same applies to oil and gas whose revenues which fell from YR 1 trillion to 975 billion, against a slight increase in taxes, customs and Zakat revenues.

This deficit comes as oil prices saw an unprecedented increase especially during the last year and first half of the current year, as prices only started decreasing over the last two weeks. Prices of oil have decreased over 60 percent from what it’s peak was in July.

COCA reports indicated that there is spending outside the approved budget at 15 billion and these sums were used in financing projects while other projects are still pending for years.