To evade paying salaries...a Houthi plan to empty the state treasury with fake projects
English - Saturday 09 September 2023 الساعة 09:35 am
Sana'a, NewsYemen, exclusive:
The cost of investment projects that the Houthi militias officially announced in their media during the past days revealed the truth about the amount of money possessed by the state treasury in Sanaa, which is sufficient to pay the salaries of all employees for several years.
For years, the Houthi leaders have been presenting “the empty treasury and the lack of financial liquidity due to the aggression’s siege” to justify the theft of salaries and the worsening of living conditions. However, the inflated cost of the funds specified for investment projects nullified all the arguments that the Houthi leaders promoted and tried to implant by force of arms and the media to make employees accept the situation of living without salaries.
Over the past days, the prominent leader Mahdi Al-Mashat, head of the Houthi Supreme Political Council, laid the foundation stones for several projects bearing the name of investment and service in several governorates under their control. And huge sums of money in order to cover up the draining and zeroing of the public treasury in order to evade the responsibility of paying salaries to employees.
Fake projects
Suddenly, Al-Mashat appeared in Amran Governorate, north of Sana'a, inaugurating and laying the foundation stone for more than 101 projects under the name of supporting services and development. At a cost of 3 billion and 200 million Yemeni riyals, as well as 3.5 million dollars. After that, the Houthi leader moved towards Saada Governorate - the main stronghold of the Houthi militias in Yemen - where he inaugurated and laid the foundation stone for several projects at a cost amounting to three million and 900 thousand dollars.
In Sanaa, Al-Mashat opened projects there at a total cost of five billion and 293 million riyals, amid assurances of continued financing of these far-reaching projects that do not contribute to improving any living conditions of the population.
Sources in the Ministry of Finance confirmed that there are orders to disburse large sums of money from government accounts at the Central Bank in Sana’a. These funds and project deals are passed without discussion from either the Houthi government or Parliament. Pointing out that there is a large depletion in expenditures under the cover of the investment program, while the salaries item is not being pumped into revenue funds, which doubled during the UN truce until today.
The sources added that there is a deliberate intention to drain the state treasury, even though the funds allocated for these projects, some of which are unnecessary, are sufficient to cover the salaries and improve the standard of living conditions for employees who were deprived of their salaries without any justification.
Misleading public opinion
Following the end of the UN truce in October 2022, the Houthi militias obtained economic privileges, especially the opening of the port of Hodeidah and facilitating the movement of goods and oil derivatives to their areas. This contributed significantly to the increase in revenue collected, in addition to the taxes and customs imposed on merchants.
The internationally recognized Yemeni government revealed operations carried out by the Houthi militias against the state's public revenues, taxes and customs within two years. The amounts acquired amounted to more than $9 billion from the beginning of 2022 until the middle of the current year 2023.
Information Minister Muammar Al-Eryani said, “The terrorist Houthi militia affiliated with Iran is trying to mislead Yemeni public opinion by disavowing the crime of plunder and stopping the payment of salaries to teachers and state employees in areas under its control by force.”
The minister added that the Houthi militias are demanding that the legitimate government pay salaries, while they continue to plunder the public treasury, cash reserves, and hundreds of billions in public revenues and revenues from oil derivatives imports.
Al-Eryani explained that since the UN armistice of 2022, the Houthi militia has escalated the systematic looting of public revenues, tax and customs revenues for oil derivatives through the port of Hodeidah, and has sold "free" Iranian oil and gas in the local markets at double prices, and has doubled its illegal levies on the private sector.
He pointed out that the total revenues looted by the Houthi militia exceed government salaries, amounting to 927 billion Yemeni riyals. Calling on the international community, the United Nations, and UN and American envoys to exert real pressure on the Houthi militia to stop its policies of systematic starvation and impoverishment against citizens, and its systematic plunder of state revenues and allocate them to regularly disburse employee salaries according to the civil service database for the year 2014, instead of directing them to benefit the wealth of its leaders and the so-called “war effort.” "
Hide revenue
The Houthi militias have continued to refuse to discuss the final accounts and general budgets of the state over the past years in order to hide the amount of real money that covers the budget for disbursing salaries and providing a decent life for citizens in areas under their control.
Economic sources revealed that the estimate of the total revenues obtained by the Houthi militia during the year 2022 from official government resources amounted to one trillion and 740 billion riyals, without the compulsory levies and collections that it exercises against citizens, merchants and the private sector.
The sources explained that the militias obtained about 928 billion and 948 million riyals from Chapter One of the state’s general budget, and these revenues include taxes, customs, and zakat. It also obtained 811 billion and 124 million riyals from property income, sales of goods and services, and various transfers. In addition to billions in administrative fees, fines, penalties and confiscations.
Member of the Sanaa Parliament, Ahmed Saif Hashid, confirmed in his statements that there is an insistence on hiding the public budgets and final accounts from the House of Representatives by the ruling authority in Sanaa - in reference to the Houthi group. Pointing out that there are higher directives for members of the Council not to open a discussion of the general budget or demands for the payment of interrupted salaries.
Treasury whistling
And with the growth of these revenues; The militias found themselves faced with the need to pay salaries that had been interrupted for about 9 years. After the collapse of all justifications and arguments and the failure of the policy of threats and subjugation that it practiced against citizens in the areas under its control. This prompted it to move quickly in order to confront the escalation of protests led by civil components, led by the “Teachers Club,” to put pressure on leaders to pay salaries on a monthly and regular basis.
The amount of declared funds reveals that the Houthi militias have been plundering the people’s money for years and exploiting it for their personal interests without taking into account the continuing deterioration of living conditions and the high rates of famine, poverty and unemployment in the country, whose crisis was recently classified as the worst in the world.
