The Jordanian Audit Bureau issued the annual governmental audit report on Wednesday, October 31, 2018, revealing 69 cases of embezzlement on public funds in the Kingdom during 2017.

The report aims to prevent the waste and misuse of public money, and includes observations and analyses of the violations commuted by governmental entities under the bureau’s supervision.

According to the report, there are still many cases committed by government collectors, accountants, treasurers and money changers, who embezzle from the Public Fund. Receipts and financial records were manipulated and sums of money were written off under fictitious names, or falsely into other employees' record statements, as well as cheque fraud as employees signed cheques under fake names and false credentials.

Some governmental entities have been paying taxes with bad cheques, which led to criminal charges against them to collect the amounts due.

Public Funds were also misused by spending large amounts of money for personal interest and use, which has no benefit to the public.

Some example cases from the audit report:

A former director of Social Security, awarded himself JD 70,000 without merit.

A government employee in the Department of Land and Survey sold 300 dunams of state owned land belonging to the state treasury to himself and his sister.

House of Representatives buys a meal for JD 4 thousand for employees.

Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) has seven cases mounting up to almost JD 400 thousand of public money misuse.

According to the audit report, the main reasons leading to the misuse of the Public Fund are:

1. the lack of internal supervision and control inside governmental units,
2. insufficient guarantees from Public Fund receivers,
3. non-activation of computerized systems which are supposed to be used in ministries, departments and independent public institutions,
4. employment of unqualified employees to handle financial matters,
5. non-observance of corporate governance requirements.

In the 2017 Corruption Perceptions Index, Jordan scored 48 out of 100, in an index ranking 180 countries on perceived levels of public sector corruption.

You can read the 2017 audit report (in Arabic) here.