The annual report for 2013 issued by the Coalition for Accountability and Integrity (AMAN) showed that corruption is still rampant inside public Palestinian institutions despite the progress during the past year. It showcased the positive and negative developments that affected corruption in various sectors, focusing on the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank, as gathering information from Gaza’s Hamas government is difficult.

The report, entitled “Corruption and Ways to Combat it,” recommended that steps be taken to re-evaluate the general structure of the PA’s institutions, reduce the number of non-ministerial public institutions and merge them into more efficient bodies as well as implement fiscal changes and put an end to the squandering of public funds.

The report also stated that the continued absence of an official framework by which conflict of interest is determined and the lack of mechanisms by which to reduce it in the public sector were the reasons behind the prevalence of the crime of graft, the most common form of corruption in Palestine.

According to AMAN, the report’s aim was to help decision makers, politicians and civil-society organizations gain insight into the pervasiveness of corruption and what is needed to combat it. This would aid in the development of laws, policies and procedures meant to combat corruption and raise the awareness of Palestinians to the dangers of all forms of corruption, including nepotism, favoritism, illegal gains from public office and the squandering of public funds. Additionally, it recommended that cooperation be encouraged with independent media outlets in order to promote transparency in the public, private and civil sectors.