On Sunday, the Chairman of the National Oil Corporation (NOC), Mustafa Sanalla, accused the Governor of the Central Bank of Libya (CBL), Siddik Al-Kabir, of squandering billions of dollars of oil revenues.
In a recorded video published by the NOC, Sanalla criticized the lack of transparency in Al-Kabir’s monetary policy for the country, and for unfairly spending money on certain regions to create power centres. He noted that Libya is going through a severe financial crisis, due to such failed practices.
He added, “We sell oil, not dust and you (in reference to Al-Kabir) have a dollar at four exchange rates. How come that one takes it for LYD 1.40 while another purchases it at LYD 6? Credits are for the fat cats in specific regions. Where has the money gone?”
“Collecting oil money does not come easily, and the CBL wastes it in corrupt credits for fat cats”, Sanalla stated. He also decried the CBL’s failure to issue a single statement against this year’s oil blockade.
Sanalla wondered, “Where did the $186 billion in oil revenues, which were transferred to the Central Bank in recent years, go?” The NOC Chairman added, “Has the living standards of the Libyan people improved? Has cash liquidity been available, and have new projects been built? In fact, no. But there are very specific people who have hundreds of millions of fake credits from the central bank.”
Sanalla confirmed that the NOC will continue to keep oil revenues in its sovereign accounts at the Libyan Foreign Bank (LFB), until a transparent and clear mechanism to fairly distribute revenues is adopted by the CBL.