Prime Minister of the National Unity Government Abdel Hamid Dabaiba defended his government’s policies and the performance of his ministries, stressing his keenness to respect the Parliament, which he considers the supreme authority in the country.
This came in a government accountability session, which was held Wednesday, at the House of Representatives in Tobruk, and was attended by the Prime Minister and some of his ministers, during which he justified the government’s reliance on the expenditures of the emergency clause by not adopting the budget by the Parliament, after its Finance Committee confirmed the government’s spending of more than 46 billion dinars.
Dabaiba detailed his government’s expenses from the controversial emergency aspect, as he revealed the allocation of 700 million to the Ministry of the Interior, and one billion and 200 million to the Ministry of Health, of which only 100 million were spent, according to the assurances of the Minister of Health, who announced his ministry’s success in dealing with the Coronavirus file and stabilizing the epidemiological situation in the southern region, with the continuation of the national vaccination campaign, and the procurement of the vaccine.
Dabaiba added that his government transferred 50 million to the five accredited medical centers in Libya, which have independent financial control, and 150 million to the Ministry of Communications, in addition to 250 million to the Ministry of Local Government, and 100 million to various ministries, as well as allocating 500 million to support the Social Solidarity Fund, where the sums were directed to raise basic pension salaries, which are urgent expenses in the eyes of Dabaiba, in light of the failure to adopt the budget that the government needs to rebuild cities and establish stalled infrastructure projects, justifying the increase in the value of the proposed budget with the change in the exchange rate with the increase in debts owed by the previous government by about 80 billion.
Parliament Speaker Aqila Saleh, in turn, criticized the government, accusing it of not representing the three regions in institutions, bodies, and investment companies.
Saleh continued his criticism of the government, as he wondered about its failure to provide cash, which is one of its most important entitlements.
The Legislative Committee of the House of Representatives was surprised by the government’s failure to activate the laws and legislation in force and issued by the Parliament, considering this a continuation of the Sarraj government’s approach to ignoring laws, which prompted the member of Parliament, Abdel Moneim Al-Urfi, to demand the correction of the government’s path and the withdrawal of confidence from it, after the latter’s regression from conducting national reconciliation, unification of institutions, and access to elections scheduled for December 24.
The House of Representatives suspended the accountability session for next Monday, after it was held in two periods, and it did not issue anything confirming or denying the HoR intention to withdraw confidence from the government, after Parliament spokesman Abdullah Blaihiq confirmed in a statement the suspension of the session, to study the responses provided by the government.
It is noteworthy that the Department of Presidential Affairs in the House of Representatives sent to the office of the Prime Minister of the Government of National Unity, Abdul Hamid Al-Dabaiba, questions of the committees to be answered, at the request of the latter, which came in 16 pages.
