2011, the Palestinian Authority spent $4.5 million per month paying Palestinian prisoners. The payments include monthly amounts such as NIS 12,000 ($3,000) to prisoners who have been imprisoned for over 30 years. The salaries, funded by the PA, are given to Fatah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad prisoners, despite financial hardships by the Palestinian Authority. These payments make up 6% of the PA's budget. , the PA has a debt of 1.8 bln NIS to the Israel Electric Corporation. In 2017, the PA received $693 million from foreign donors, of which $345 million, was paid out through the Martyrs Fund in the form of stipends to convicted militants and their families. Corruption A poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research revealed that 71% of Palestinians believe there is corruption in the Palestinian Authority institutions in the West Bank, and 57% say there is corruption in the institutions of the dismissed Palestinian government in the Gaza Strip. 34% say that there is no freedom of the press in the West Bank, 21% say that there is press freedom in the West Bank, and 41% say there is to a certain extent. 29% of Palestinians say people in the West Bank can criticize the government in the West Bank without fear. At a hearing of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs in the United States Congress on 10 July 2012, titled "Chronic Kleptocracy: Corruption within the Palestinian Political Establishment," it was stated that there is serious corruption within the political establishment and in financial transactions. The experts, analysts, and specialists testified on corruption within financial transactions concerning Mahmoud Abbas, his sons Yasser and Tareq, and the Palestine Investment Fund, among others, as well as on the limiting of freedom of the press, crushing political opposition, and cracking down on protestors. According to Representative Steve Chabot, who testified at the hearing, "Reports suggest that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, like his predecessor Yassir Arafat, has used his position of power to line his own pockets as well as those of his cohort of cronies, including his sons, Yasser and Tareq. The Palestinian Investment Fund, for example, was intended to serve the interests of the Palestinian population and was supposed to be transparent, accountable, and independent of the Palestinian political leadership. Instead, it is surrounded by allegations of favoritism and fraud." Concerning Abbas' children, Chabot stated that "Even more disturbingly, Yasser and