Regarding measure 3, pursuant to Germany, the measures financed by the liquidity pool in the amount of EUR 170 million (92) were carried out on market-based terms, since: (a) the pool is used by the Land similarly to a market-based holding (93); (b) NG paid the interests ordinarily; and (c) the funds were fully paid back in connection with measure 8.

In the event that within the cash pooling, the liquidity demand exceeds the available funds, the liquidity gap is financed on short term basis on the capital market.

A Single Treasury Account has been established centralising the whole PA budget in one fund under the authority of the Minister of Finance. The payroll has been put under the control of the Ministry of Finance, and recruitment capped. A Palestinian Investment Fund was established in 2002 in order to bring PA investment and commercial operations not previously under the authority of the Minister of Finance under centralised control More transparent and accountable budget management practices have been introduced, and a more efficient auditing system is currently being put in place. Legislation ensuring the independence of the Judiciary h ...[+++]as been passed.

A treasury pool agreement is an intra-group agreement under which a French subsidiary centralises the financing activities of a multinational group and is thus entrusted to borrow funds from its parent company to finance the activities of the group.

Furthermore, this argument does not address the question of why we need four treasury functions, four centralized management data systems, four human resource systems and so forth.

The Committee sees no need for the duplication of treasury functions, centralised data systems, human resource systems and so forth, which now exists among federal Crown financial institutions.