Over a billion shekels from government decisions for closing gaps in the Arab society were not transferred by the Finance Committee.
More than a billion shekels that the Ministry of Finance was supposed to transfer through the Finance Committee to various government ministries for closing gaps in the Arab society have not been transferred since the beginning of the year. If the funds are not transferred this month, the government ministries will not be able to carry out their part in implementing Government Decision 550. So far, the amount of funds not transferred stands at 1.979 billion shekels out of about 6 billion shekels that were supposed to be transferred in 2023, according to an analysis of budget transfer data conducted by the Socio-Economic Department at Mosawa Center, ahead of the discussions on changes in the state budget that will begin tomorrow. The state budget this year is approximately 636 billion shekels.
After the first year of the "Government Decision 550" program, "Economic and Social Development Plan for the Arab Society", which was designed to reduce the economic and social gaps in the Arab society, it is evident that the implementation of the program was partial and not as transparent as required by the government decision. The program's budget was supposed to be about 30 billion shekels over 5 years (2022-2026), meaning each year the government ministries were supposed to carry out partial plans with a budget of 6 billion shekels.
Mosawa Center warns that the failure to transfer the budgets intended for the implementation of the government decision will halt important projects aimed at closing gaps.
The following are the ministries to which the budgets have not yet been transferred:
Agriculture - 33.5 million shekels
Culture - 87.38 million shekels
Sports - 56.2 million shekels
Sustainable Energy - 12.5 million shekels
Building classrooms and kindergartens - 340 million shekels
According to the Economic Development Authority's report, the additional
budget for the education program amounting to 451.8 million shekels has not yet been finally approved.
Development of industrial zones - 65 million shekels
Promotion of employment paths by the Investment Authority, etc. - 25 million shekels
Mixed cities - 60 million shekels
Jisr az-Zarqa - 40 million shekels for 2023
In addition, a dedicated budget for the Negev, amounting to 1,040 million shekels, is still unclear when it will be transferred.
In the 2022 program year of "Government Decision 550", the programs were actually budgeted at about 5 billion shekels, meaning the budget execution rate stands at 83%.
