Member of the Libyan House of Representatives (HoR), Asma Al-Khoja, said that tomorrow’s session will likely discuss the budget items submitted by the new government.
In press statements, Al-Khoja stated that they will not vote in the session on the budget, and that First Deputy Speaker of Parliament Fawzi Al-Nuwairi will be President of tomorrow’s session.
Regarding the Cairo meetings, Al-Khoja indicated that if the delegations of the Parliament and the High Council of State (HCS) were unable to reach a settlement of the contentious points in the draft constitution. She added that the two bodies would go to form another committee to find a constitutional basis, and this is the path they are currently following.
Al-Khoja expected that the committee reviewing the controversial points in the draft constitution will present its work tomorrow in the Parliament, and that some points of contention will be discussed for discussion.
On Saturday, the new Minister of Planning and Finance, Osama Hammad, of the Libyan government headed by Fathi Bashagha, confirmed that the proposed draft budget amounts to around 95 billion Libyan dinars. This is not a large amount given dat the first chapter of salaries only amounts to 41 billion Libyan dinars.
In a statement, Hammad said that the draft budget adopted a new unified salary law, which he hoped would be accepted by the Parliament in parallel with the general budget.
He explained that the draft budget aims to achieve several goals, the most important of which is putting laws and decisions issued by the HoR into effect and focusing on solving citizens’ problems with regard to access to public services.
The Minister noted that the government will support projects and programs for development, reconstruction and infrastructure. It will work to find appropriate solutions to the problems of struggling national companies.
He also stressed that the draft budget included mechanisms to rationalise spending and support of vital sectors such as the oil sector, electricity and local aviation.
The Minister added that part of the budget was allocated to support local government, and implement the consolidated Libyan data project. This contributes to the success of the electoral process.
Hammad expected that the Governor of the Central Bank of Libya (CBL), Al Siddiq Al-Kabeer, would cooperate in monetising the draft budget once it was approved by the HoR.
The Planning Minister said that the draft budget did not include a contingency item, citing that the country is stable and does not need it at the present time.
Hammad confirmed that the continued oil blockade may cause confusion in financing the budget. He added that the demands of protesters are legitimate to freeze oil revenues in a foreign bank account.
He also stressed that the Planning and Finance Ministry of the Libyan government is ready to fully cooperate and coordinate with all the supervisory bodies and the CBL. He stressed that the Ministry will deal with complete transparency in publishing follow-up reports to implement the budget periodically.