Half of 2021 has passed, and the state’s general budget has exceeded the date on which it is supposed to be approved for the government to carry out its tasks in providing services to citizens, in light of a difficult situation that the country is going through.
Libya, until today, is without a budget, and the month of July is almost over, while everything is disrupted by the order of parliamentarians, since last April, when the government presented the budget bill to Parliament.
Delays of sessions are behind the transformation of the budget into political calculations, and bargains without taking into account the fierce spread of “Coronavirus”, and the warning of international organizations, which expressed their concern about the rapid spread of the pandemic, while the Minister of Health, Dr. Ali Al-Zanati, demanded that the general budget include financial allocations to confront “Covid-19”.
In addition, the shortages of electricity and water services continue at a time when the people’s representatives did not feel the condition of the people and their obligations towards the holiday of Eid Al-Adha, whereas the development projects promised by the government were disrupted.
Questions remain unanswered about the delay in approving the budget, and the reasons that led to its delay, all that time, but observers believe that the approval of a huge budget worth more than 90 billion dinars in light of the remaining period of the government has become unlikely, and that the Parliament will only provide allocations to Elections Commission, in addition to what it had previously approved of the emergency clause.
Some members believe that Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah is now facing major problems that can be faced by activating the texts of the political agreement and submitting its budget to the Presidential Council and the Central Bank’s Board of Directors for approval, which may cause the Parliament to lose the right to monitor spending.
Faced with this situation; some fear that the division in the executive and financial institutions will return, or that the matter will develop into a new war over control of the sources of oil wealth.
