Suspicions over upkeep of Arafat’s tomb

Palestinian sources have reported claims to form an investigation committee to uncover what led to the rebuilding of the tomb of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, said to have cost $700,000. The findings were revealed in a report by researcher Raeda Kandil, in which she criticised the Pecdar Foundation and Martyr Yasser Arafat Foundation responsible for the project. Kandil said the report studied the defects and changes that emerged as a result environmental influences and construction materials used in the tomb. "The institutions have not provided us with the needed information, which was a problem we encountered in the preparation of the report. I tried to obtain information from the Ministry of Finance through official letters and communication, but I got no response. I had to complete the report from available files in other institutions.” Kandil stated: “I realised through media means that the maintenance work was done by the Yasser Arafat Foundation, Pecdar Foundation, and the Hani al-Hassan Office. I went to the latter which provided me with files and necessary information which were not available by other institutions. The information showed that the expenses of the maintenance of the tomb were taken by the Ministry of Finance, which did not provide any bids for the project and spent the money through direct contracting." "Conditions such as the maximum limit of the direct contract ($400,000) were not applied. Such things should be done through the cabinet. It requires a technical committee, headed by a minister to study the project. " For his part, the Commissioner of  Coalition for Accountability and Integrity (AMAN ), Azmi Shuaibi that prepared the report, explained that the Pecdar Foundation submitted a technical study in response to a report by the Office of Hani al-Hassan.  It showed that the stones on which the tomb was built were not in accordance with the specifications set out in the report prepared by the designer of the mausoleum, Jaafar Toukan, in addition to executive issues that have not committed to technical conditions related to fixing the stones mechanically. Shuaibi said that Pecdar demanded through its report to rebuild the tomb because it may not survive in the future, citing the writings that had begun to erode and disappear. It was found through an examination prepared after four years  that the stones which should have been classified as (a) were in fact classified as (b) in the inventory. He added that Pecdar did not give them its technical opinion but said that the situation generally reflected the need for restoration and maintenance. Shuaibi stated that rebuilding the tomb of Yasser Arafat meant extracting $700,000 from the public treasury at a time the Palestinian National Authority was in bad need of funds due to the financial crisis. "It is the right of citizens and civil society institutions to know what is wrong and who is responsible," he said. He also pointed out that there was a fear of mixing technical matters with politics, which coincided with the claim to re-examine Arafat's body on the back of fresh reports that the icon was poisoned with radioactive polonium. Mansour Tahboub of the Yasser Arafat Foundation explained: "During the work, it turned out that the stones had been significantly eroded and we decided that the situation needed to radically change. We have contacted competent institutions to study the case to reach an advisory opinion while Pecdar and Engineers Association had another perspective and called for a new study.” Tahboub stated that $240,0000 dollars were allocated for the entire project, with $630,000 dollars for the maintenance of the tomb. Engineer Hani al-Hassan said: "The technical report was delayed four months before exposing the need to make eight laboratory tests to make sure of the results. The  specifications which were set by the designer, the quality of the stone of class (a) were chosen from the same source and the same colour, but what has been put is (b) and (c), and after checking dozens of sites , other problems were found including wrong humidity estimates.” Hasan mentioned that fixing the stones should be according to known scientific sources, by using a piece of plastic at the tip of the stone to prevent humidity. It was however found that the stones were fixed in some areas with aluminum and silicon, though it is forbidden to paste stones with petroleum substances which penetrate the stone with the passage of time. That is why dark spots were beginning to show on the stones of the mausoleum.