US
Slams Opacity
in Bahrain,
Egypt, Gives
Apaches and
Bases, Blind
to UN?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 14 --
The US today
released its
Fiscal
Transparency Report under
Section
7031(b) of the
Department of
State, Foreign
Operations,
and Related
Programs
Appropriations
Act, 2014, on
governments
receiving
bilateral
allocations of
assistance
under the Act.
Some are
quoted below,
but first
these two
questions from
Inner City
Press: what
restrictions
does the US
impose for
lack of
transparency,
for example by
Egypt, to
which the US
in delivering
Apache
helicopter, to
say nothing of
the
journalists
detained?
Second, if the
US prepared a
similar report
on the UN
itself, how
would the
refusal to
account for or
disclose Ban
Ki-moon's
acceptance of
gift like free
private jet
travel from
Qatar, and refusal
to implement
even the most
basic Freedom
of Information
Act, as
requested by
the Free
UN Coalition
for Access?
Now some from
the report (link
to full report here)
“Bahrain
does not
disclose the
expenditures
of the royal
family in its
publicly
available
budget.”
“Egypt’s
budget does
not disclose
expenditures
for
significant
state-owned
enterprises or
presidential
expenses.”
“Ethiopia's
processes for
awarding
natural
resource
concessions,
contracts, and
licenses are
opaque.”
“Gabon’s
budget
reliability is
lacking. The
audit
institution
has been
unable to
complete
verification.”
And what does
France say?
“Haiti’s
process for
granting
natural
resource
contracts
lacks
transparency.”
And now, a
hold-over
leader/
“Yemen
budget lacks
sufficient
info regarding
allocations to
and revenue
from
significant
state-owned
enterprises.”
.
, 
