On Saturday, the Chairman of the Libyan National Planning Council, Muftah Al-Harir, confirmed that the Libyan sovereign institutions are on track for unification.
These remarks came during the meetings of the National Planning Council, in cooperation with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Libya and the United States Institute of Peace (USIP).
In his word, Al-Harir called for ending the current state of institutional division completely. He said, “the unification of the sovereign institutions is one of the most important issues of the nation, and it is on its way to being resolved thanks to the efforts of the benevolent people of our country.” These sessions will continue until June 21st.
He also urged all internal and external actors to refrain from any moves that could undermine stability, deepen divisions or undo the hard-won progress achieved over the last two years.
He went on to call on all Libyan parties to protect the independence, integrity, and reunification of public institutions.
The program aims to unify the sovereign institutions, which include the Audit Bureau and the Administrative Control Authority.
Public servants in Libya have suffered from a delay in their salaries for years due to the division of financial institutions. The National Commission for Human Rights in Libya condemned the delay of salaries of public servants, describing the move as a violation of the people’s economic and social rights.
“This unification will result in unifying financial data and the balances of commercial banks as well as facilitate the purchase of hard currency,” Head of the liquidity crisis committee at the Central Bank of Libya, Ramzi Al-Agha, said.
“It is crucial to unify the central bank and elect a national figure to manage it so that it can carry out reforms in the exchange rate, eliminate the difference in the exchange rate between the parallel and official market, and make foreign currency available to all [regions of the country], and work according to the banking law and not based on the whims of militias,” Al-Agha said.
Libya has been deeply plagued over the past few years by a political and economic collapse, inter-militia and intertribal warfare, as well as a humanitarian crisis. This occurred after NATO forces intervened in March 2011 in the country’s civil war and helped overthrow its long-time leader Moammar Gaddafi.
Notably, the country is currently facing a political crisis after the Libyan Parliament swore in former Interior Minister, Fathi Bashagha, to lead a new interim government in February. Members of Parliament (MP’s) argued that incumbent Prime Minister, Abdelhamid Al-Dbaiba’s mandate expired when elections failed to take place in December.