Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): Is the Government of Bahrain performing its duties? What are the achievements of this Government if it is not implementing the projects it has planned? Where do the funds for these projects disappear to? 

The final account of the state for the year 2021, for instance, shows that the government has not completed 40% of the projects it has monitored, including housing and educational projects, in addition to road projects. 

These projects were approved by the government as part of its work plan and the draft budget for the year 2021, but it did not implement 40% of those projects that citizens are in need of.

Housing compounds, schools, and roads that the government has failed to implement despite the queues of people waiting for housing services, double the number of students crammed in classrooms, and deadly congested streets.

This is done repeatedly with every final account of the state, as the citizens are afflicted by a government that does not do its simplest duties. Every year, the government accumulates more unfinished projects.

The Bahraini government allocated 300 million dinars in the draft budget for the year 2021, meaning that it did not implement projects worth 120 million dinars, and this doesn't count the support funds it received from the Gulf countries. 

More than 120 million dinars were returned to the accounts of the Ministry of Finance, but it did not disclose where they were spent as usual.

The Minister of Finance is entitled by law to redirect retained funds by virtue of a decision he issues.

In fact, this is done for confidential purposes. The government usually sets up project budgets but does not implement them with the intention of recycling them for security projects or undisclosed accounts.

By tracking the country's final accounts, the government does not accomplish the projects it has supervised. Service ministries, such as the education ministry, usually complete less than half of their allocated budgets, while the Ministry of Interior goes over its allocated budgets. 

Excessive security expenditures are made at the expense of schools, hospitals, housing and road projects.

Although the budget allocates more than one billion dinars to the ministries of defense and interior and the security services out of a total of 3 and a half billion, these ministries go over their budgets and are financed at the expense of other services. 

One-third of budget expenditures go to security, yet health and education expenditures are tampered with in order to put more funds into the country's so-called security needs.

In conclusion, Bahrainis are living in a country where the government is interested in building more prisons and strengthening its military arsenal, while neglecting the needs of students, the ill, and the disadvantaged waiting for basic housing.

Arabic Version