Fayad: PA faces financial crisis due to shortfall in donor funding

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Palestinian government officials said Thursday that they are facing a budget crisis because foreign donors were not sending as much aid as initially promised. Palestinian Authority Planning Minister Samir Abdullah said that the government would not be able to pay the July salaries of its 150,000 employees in full. Approximately one-third of the 3.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are supported by the salaries of civil servants. The international community had pledged $7.7 billion in aid over three years for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, including large sums to support the PA government budget. However, PA Prime Minister Salaam Fayad said that some of the donors, particularly Arab states, had not paid as much as promised.