MPs debate amendments to Audit Bureau Law

AMMAN — The Lower House on Monday began deliberations over amendments to the Audit Bureau Law during a session chaired by Speaker Abdulmunim Oddat and attended by Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Bisher Al Khasawneh and Cabinet members.

The new amendments define the Audit Bureau as “a financially and administratively independent oversight body that carries out its functions without influence or interference by any other party, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The deputies also called for giving the bureau the power to monitor foreign grants and aid and audit computerised and electronic financial systems and processes at the entities that are under the bureau's jurisdiction.

The amendments also grant the Audit Bureau head immunity from arrest or trial, barring a House decision lifting the immunity on him/her, except in the case of flagrante delicto with the prior notification of the House, according to Petra.

Two MPs contested the joint legal and financial committee's decision on the passing of the Audit Bureau's budget, proposing that the bureau's chief prepares an independent budget and sends it directly to the prime minister to be incorporated in the general state budget.