A Palestinian cabinet reshuffle has been expected since Mr Arafat appointed a committee to investigate the corruption exposed by the authority's auditor in June. The auditor estimated that $326 million, or 40 per cent of the authority's budget for 1994-95, had been wasted or misappropriated.
Some of the money was spent on useless projects, some embezzled by ministers and officials and some used to fund political activities by
Mr Arafat's allies, the audit found. These revelations precipitated a crisis of confidence between the authority and the populace and caused Mr Arafat's opinion-poll approval to plunge below 40 per cent.
"Arafat is aware that he must make some changes but this will not amount to a thoroughgoing reshuffle," Dr Ghassan Khatib, a leading
Palestinian analyst, told The Irish Times. "The committee is headed by Tayeb Abdel Rahim who is at present the person closest to the president. Although the committee has some independent members, it will not go further in its recommendations than the president wants."
Many Palestinians regard the auditor's report, released a year after completion, and the proposed reshuffle as cosmetic measures intended to restore Mr Arafat's flagging credibility and political control, rather than as initiatives designed to reform his administration.
Mr Arafat's dramatic descent from the 88 per cent he won in the presidential poll is largely a consequence of massive mismanagement and corruption, combined with the collapse of the peace process, for which Palestinians blame Israel. While the Palestinians expected a certain amount of mismanagement, due to lack of experience, they have found themselves subjected to major corruption as well.
An informed source in Hebron, preferring not to be named for fear of retribution, said: "Corruption is the modus operandi of the
Palestine National Authority. It is corrupt from top to bottom.
Arafat has simply not changed his methods from the years he spent as a resistance leader . . . He was never called upon to account for any of the money he was given by the Arabs and he hasn't changed his behaviour.
"Initially the international donor countries demanded accountability, but dropped this demand when they received reports on mismanagement and corruption from the CIA and Mossad."
In this source's view, authority corruption has been cloaked in a
"conspiracy of silence" involving Israel, the US, and European and other donors. For them "the peace process is paramount, not financial responsibility or democracy or human rights. As long as Arafat remains Israel's partner, he will be protected and his faults and felonies overlooked. Arafat must have money to survive."
To augment monies misappropriated from donations, the authority has encouraged the emergence of 27 "private" and "public" monopolies which control imports of fuel, flour, building materials and cigarettes into Gaza.
Similar, but less powerful, companies have been set up in the West
Bank where there has been a major scandal over the provision of rancid flour to the local market. Revenues generated by the monopolies, which have forced local firms out of business and raised prices, fund the burgeoning bureaucracy and security services.
Outrage over the excesses of al- Bahr ("the sea"), the Gaza computers-to-restaurants monopoly in which Mr Arafat is alleged to have a controlling interest, compelled the authority to declare it a
"public" company. But this has done little to reassure Palestinians of their president's probity, or of the transparency of the authority's dealings.
A cabinet reshuffle which fails to bring in independent personalities known for their integrity and honesty can only further alienate the long-suffering Palestinians.