Fayyad accepts PA finance minister's resignation

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad announced Sunday that he has accepted the resignation of his finance minister, Nabil Qassis.

Fayyad’s announcement came during the weekly meeting of the PA cabinet in Ramallah. Fayyad briefed the ministers on the content of Qassis’s letter of resignation, but the letter was not released for publication.

Fayyad thanked Qassis for his work, but did not say why the finance minister had decided to quit.

Last weekend, the PA announced that its president, Mahmoud Abbas, had rejected Qassis’s resignation and asked him to remain in his job. Qassis’s resignation came as the PA government continues to face a severe financial crisis, triggering a wave of protests and strikes by public servants.

Officials said that Qassis’s resignation could be the result of his dissatisfaction with recent agreements signed between the PA government and various unions representing public servants.

Qassis, according to the officials, believes that the PA government would not be able to fulfill its financial pledges to its employees.

Palestinian economic expert Naser Abdel Karim said that Qassis decided to resign because he does not believe that he could meet the public’s expectations.

“The finance minister feels embarrassed because he has not been able to improve the financial situation of the Palestinian Authority,” Abdel Karim told the daily Al-Quds. He said that another reason why the minister decided to quit was his failure to come up with a new budget for 2013.

Another economic expert, Nafez Abu Baker, said that Qassis decided to quit after realizing that his proposals to end the financial crisis in the PA, such as cutting expenses and reducing bonuses for public sector workers, had been opposed by many.