YR 249 bln to implement President’s directives, Finance Minister
p>SANA’A, March 05 (Saba)- The Parliament listened on Saturday to explanations from Ministers of Finance and Social Affairs and Labor, and Deputy Minister of Civil Service and Insurance on the implementation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s directives. President Saleh has directed the government to create an employment fund for youth, employ a part of university graduates in 2011, and adopt new social security cases, as well as the implementation of the national strategy for wages and salaries and the annual allowances for the State staff. The total financial impact, expected to implement what already mentioned during the fiscal year 2011, has amounted to about YR 249.4 billion, al-Suhaybi pointed out. In this regard, Minister of Finance Nu’aman al-Suhaybi explained that his ministry has financially enhanced 40 agencies and 81 local authority offices, with about YR 7.4 billion in February 2011. This represents 90 percent of the expected monthly cost ,estimated at YR 9.5 billion a month, al-Suhaybi noted pointing out that the implemented number included 933 thousands of employees and 167 thousands retirees. With respect to the new social assistances, he added that the ministry has completed to review the data of new cases with the Social Welfare Fund and formed a committee to develop a mechanism for the implementation. The distribution of these assistances ,estimated at over YR 1.8 billion a month, to the new 500 thousand cases is to begin during the current March, al-Suhaybi expected. On the release of the allowances for the past five years (2005-2010), he pointed that the estimated cost of the allowances was defined in coordination with the Civil Service Ministry, noting that it amounted to about YR 7.2 billion a month and nearly YR 87 billion during this year. The allowances’ implementation would start after completion of the third phase of the strategy for wages and salaries retroactively, al-Suhaybi added. Regarding the employment of 25 percent of the university graduates, he indicated that the initial annual cost for the employment of 50 thousand graduates by a basic monthly salary of YR 41 thousand has reached YR 26.3 million. Facing these obligations mentioned above might be imposed by objective conditions that everybody knows, said al-Suhaybi. He pointed that the government would submit an additional appropriation draft for that purpose, hoping the parliament’s approval. For her part, Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Amat al-Razaq Humad explained to the parliament that her ministry has adopted 500 thousand new cases of social security from the targeted group, surveyed in 2008. In this regard, She pointed that supervisory, technical and financial committees have been formed for this purpose in coordination with the Social Welfare Fund, Finance Ministry and the Central Organization for Control and Auditing. For his part, Deputy Minister of Civil Service and Insurance Nabil Shiban explained to the parliament the steps and actions taken by the Ministry of Civil Service to implement the President’s directives with regard to its own functions and tasks. He pointed out that the State employees, whom were granted increase in the third phase of the national strategy for wages and salaries, amounted to 933 thousand employees and 167,023 retirees. The parliament’s members voiced their observations and views on what was done by the concerned ministries towards the implementation of the President’s directives. They stressed the political and legal importance of these directives and the need to convert them into plans and programs and quick implementation mechanisms by the concerned agencies of the government in order to achieve the goals of these directives. BA Saba