[CRL] BHAID: Palestinian Children's Relief Act

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

Whereas, the costs of war are frequently felt most heavily by women and children, and

Whereas, any action or contribution no matter how small is warranted to prevent further suffering or reduce current suffering, and

Whereas, Talossans are known for their care and concern for conflict-burdened peoples around the world.

Therefore, the Ziu authorises the Bureau of Humanitarian Aid and International Development to make a one-time contribution of $50 (USD), to the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund, at https://www.pcrf.net.

Uréu q'estadra så
Breneir Tzaracomprada (MC-Open Society)

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

I agree with the sentiment. Am doing research on the specific charity recommended.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

Yes, this charity looks legit.

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

Yes, this charity looks legit.

Huzzah, thanks @Miestră Schivă, UrN

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

@Sir Txec dal Nordselvă, UrB @Ian Plätschisch @Glüc da Dhi S.H.
Hello Mr. Secretary and CRL members, would one of you be able to move my bill to the CRL thread? It has passed the 10-day Hopper review period.

[Sir Lüc]

I meant to ask, is this sum intended to be paid off the $50 appropriation for MinFor? Because in that case this bill would not be necessary, all you need to do is coordinate with MinFor to issue a notice of disbursement and in fourteen days's time, voila, the contribution is made.

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

I meant to ask, is this sum intended to be paid off the $50 appropriation for MinFor? Because in that case this bill would not be necessary, all you need to do is coordinate with MinFor to issue a notice of disbursement and in fourteen days's time, voila, the contribution is made.

No this would be a separate item. Thank you for checking.

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

@Sir Lüc as Deputy or @Sir Txec dal Nordselvă, UrB as SoS would either of you be willing to move this to the CRL?

[Sir Txec dal Nordselvă, UrB]

@Sir Lüc as Deputy or @Sir Txec dal Nordselvă, UrB as SoS would either of you be willing to move this to the CRL?

Done

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

@Sir Lüc as Deputy or @Sir Txec dal Nordselvă, UrB as SoS would either of you be willing to move this to the CRL?

Done

Thank you Txec

[Ian Plätschisch]

Approved

[þerxh Sant-Enogat]

Approved also

[Glüc da Dhi S.H.]

The current government submitted a budget allocating 50 dollars for expenditure by the Bureau of Humanitarian Aid and International Development. I would be interested to hear from the minister of finance how the government envisions this money be spent. Is it first come, first serve with the money going to whichever charity the Ziu passes a bill for first? Does the government itself have a project in mind? Does it support this particular bill and if it passes does that mean the government won't support any further BHAID donations this term? Basically, how do ad-hoc BHAID bills like this relate to the budget? @Sir Lüc

I have no recommendation on this bill.

[Sir Lüc]

The current government submitted a budget allocating 50 dollars for expenditure by the Bureau of Humanitarian Aid and International Development. I would be interested to hear from the minister of finance how the government envisions this money be spent. Is it first come, first serve with the money going to whichever charity the Ziu passes a bill for first? Does the government itself have a project in mind? Does it support this particular bill and if it passes does that mean the government won't support any further BHAID donations this term? Basically, how do ad-hoc BHAID bills like this relate to the budget?

It's not my responsibility to decide how the various ministries spend their allocation, so I can't really speak on behalf of the Foreign Affairs Minister about this, except to unofficially say I think a donation to Pëngöpäts-related conservation funds was floated around Cabinet. The Cabinet does support the proposed donation. We feel the cause is very important and much more urgent, and the Seneschal herself mentioned in the Hopper thread the charity was up to snuff, so to speak, according to her vetting.

I did suggest to the Leader of the Opposition that it would have been much quicker, not to mention generally the correct approach if passing a Budget has any point, to spend the allocated money rather than pass a separate appropriations bill. The Leader of the Opposition declined, perhaps because he did not understand my suggestion or because there indeed was confusion about how the $50 were to be spent.

I concurrently pursued the matter in Cabinet, which agreed with me that we should rather coordinate to have the funds immediately disbursed rather than passing a separate bill. My suggestion to the Cabinet was also that if the Pëngöpäts donation was to be made, we could pay it off the miscellaneous fund, since we were unlikely to spend a full $50 on it. This coordination however did not happen, perhaps owing to the reduced timeframe between this discussion and the bill being Clarked.

I do not know whether the Seneschal and/or MinFor intend to support this bill or to make it moot by disbursing from the budgeted allocation, but at this point my advice to Cabinet, and I suppose my opinion in response to your questions, is that if this bill passes we will not seek to make further major disbursments from the Foreign Affairs allocation, but we may make a donation of smaller entity further down the line. If the bill instead becomes moot, such a smaller entity donation would come from the miscellaneous fund.

As for the last question, in practice if a bill such as this one is passed the Cabinet would of course not treat it as a supplemental allocation, but rather adjust downwards any further planned withdrawals from the Foreign pot. Of course, we'd rather a bill such as this one was not presented in the first place as the MinFor allocation - specifically budgeted for BHAID - was put there in the Budget for a reason. I definitely advocate clearing up BHAID's status in the ministerial structure (including discussing making it a Civil Service office if necessary), and better discussion around how the funds are allocated and spent.

I hope this answers your queries.

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

I did suggest to the Leader of the Opposition that it would have been much quicker, not to mention generally the correct approach if passing a Budget has any point, to spend the allocated money rather than pass a separate appropriations bill. The Leader of the Opposition declined, perhaps because he did not understand my suggestion or because there indeed was confusion about how the $50 were to be spent.

I declined because the intent of my BHAID bill was a separate allocation for the designated organization. The Government can choose whether it wants to make my bill moot because my proposed charitable recipient is a wiser selection. Further, there is no requirement for the BHAID to be limited to only one disbursement regardless of budgetary decisions.

(including discussing making it a Civil Service office if necessary)

I am glad someone is taking expansion of the Civil Service seriously. :)