Today, Thursday, the Governor of the Central Bank of Libya, Seddiq Al-Kabir, attended the meeting of the African Consultative Group, chaired by the President of the African Caucus, Nadia Al-Alawi, and the Director-General of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, with the participation of a number of central bank governors and African Ministers of Finance.
The meeting, which comes within the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank for the year of 2022, also dealt with the liberalization of financing for recovery and reduction of increasing debt, climate change and the Russian-Ukrainian crisis.
Parliament Speaker Aqila Saleh called on all institutions, departments, interests, public and private companies, as well as diplomatic missions, not to deal in any way or speak on behalf of the national unity government, according to a letter published by Parliament Spokesman Abdullah Bliheg, today, Tuesday.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aqila Saleh, sent a letter in particular to the President of the Supreme Judicial Council, the Attorney General, the Governor of the Central Bank of Libya, the Head of the Audit Bureau, the President of the Administrative Control Authority, and the legal representative of the Anti-Corruption Authority.
Aqila indicated in his book that the national unity government has ended its mandate according to the House of Representatives’ resolution to end its mandate on December 24, 2021, as well as House of Representatives Resolution N° 10 of 2021 regarding the withdrawal of confidence from it and assigning Fathi Bashagha to head the new government after obtaining confidence from the House of Representatives early last month.
Aqila Saleh also stressed the necessity of closing and freezing all records of decisions and books of incoming and outgoing government correspondences with expired mandate, provided that dealing should be only with the Libyan government as it is the executive authority with legitimacy in accordance with the decision of the House of Representatives, calling on the concerned authorities to take the necessary action against violators.
Identical security sources said that the head of the National Stability Government, Fathi Bashagha, left the Tunisian capital, heading to the city of Al-Bayda, after the failure of attempts to enter Tripoli by air, land and sea.
The source confirmed in exclusive statements that Bashagha had settled in a hotel in the Gammarth suburb north of the Tunisian capital since March 29, during which he paid a visit to the Egyptian capital Cairo and returned to Tunisia.
The source added that, before leaving the country, Bashagha met the advisor of the Secretary-General of the United Nations on Libya, Stephanie Williams.
In another context, the Prime Minister of the National Unity Government, Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, said during the fifth regular meeting of his government on Tuesday that the government that was born in Tobruk was invalid and was the result of fraud and loss of legitimacy, noting that the attempts to enter the capital are an attempt to jump on the truth.
The General Electricity Company announced today, Wednesday, its need to hire 371 engineers from the national elements who hold bachelor’s qualifications and higher diplomas in the field of electrical engineering from all over the country to work in a number of its administrative divisions under annual work contracts.
According to the company, it needs 71 engineers in Tripoli, 24 in Gharyan, 6 in Tobruk, 19 in Sirte, one in Zliten, 14 in Derna, two in Tarhuna, 58 in Benghazi, and 22 in the central region, 29 engineers in the Western region, 14 engineers in Al-Marqab region, 25 engineers in the West Coast region, 56 engineers in the southern region, one engineer in Al-Jafara region, 22 engineers in Al-Jabal Al-Gharbi region, and 7 engineers in Al-Jabal Al-Akhdar region.
The Board of Directors of the Libyan Investment Authority, headed by Ali Mahmoud, held the first meeting for the year 2022 at the level of the corporation’s group of companies spread across the world, via video technology, with the participation of representatives of more than 120 companies, including general managers and accountants from various companies operating outside Libya.
The meeting concluded with the affirmation of the group of companies affiliated with the Libyan Investment Authority on implementing the authority’s strategy aimed at governance, administrative reform and transparency, supporting the implementation of the project’s consolidated financial statements in accordance with international standards, and preparing qualified technical cadres to prepare those lists periodically.
The Authority and representatives of its subsidiaries also stressed the need to adopt the principle of transparency and compliance with the sanctions regime, and to standardize accounting regulations and policies at the level of group companies.
The Public Prosecution ordered the detention of the accused in the case of smuggling 10,684 pipelines dedicated to drilling oil wells through the Tripoli sea port in reserve, on charges of committing the crimes of forgery and collecting illegal benefits.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office explained that after the Attorney General’s office in the Tripoli Court of Appeals had earlier received a correspondence from the intelligence service that it had begun to carry out the act of smuggling the aforementioned pipes, that are intended for drilling oil wells through the Tripoli sea port, the Public Prosecution began investigation procedures that resulted in proof of the supply of equipment. The subject of the crime from abroad for the purpose of implementing an oil production exploration and sharing project in the country, and the obligations arising from it are regulated by the agreement concluded between the incoming company and the National Oil Corporation.
He added that the investigation procedures revealed that the owner of a company deliberately committed an act of falsifying a sales contract of oil well drilling pipes, presenting forged documents and invoices for the purpose of demonstrating the legality of the export, overcoming the obstacle of the ratio of the equipment in question to the goods subject to export restrictions, and withholding the rights of the National Oil Corporation, which is estimated at 13 million dollars. Accordingly, the investigator in the case decided to seize the movables subject of the crime and order the detention of those accused of committing the crimes of forgery and collecting illegal benefits in precautionary detention.
The Political activist Hussem Al-Qamati revealed the kidnapping of the head of the Libyan community in Ukraine, Al-Mu‘tasim Uraibi, in Tripoli, stressing that the kidnapping was for fear of exposing evidence of smuggling of fuel smugglers.
Al-Qamati explained that Uraibi was talking about the case of Ukrainian smugglers smuggling fuel who were arrested in Libya. Al-Qamati pointed out that Uraibi contacted a number of friends and sent them documents, evidence and some information about the case, which is considered extremely dangerous before he was kidnapped.
The Professor of finance and investment at Nottingham Trent University in Britain and founder of the Libyan financial market, Suleiman Al-Shahoumi, said that the least description that can be given to what is happening today in Libya, is a party of economic, social, political and moral suicide, with a local mobilization and international disdain, that implicated everyone.
Al-Shahoumi explained that stopping oil production and exporting is a disaster in the true sense of the word, whatever the slogans and premises. He added: “Without a doubt, the national unity government, by refusing to peacefully surrender to the new government, dragged the country to the return of the state of polarization and the recurring scene of conflict and made us closer to the return of armed conflict again to continue in the usual state of rotation. Logic is to not withhold revenues and not deposit them in the government’s accounts with the Central Bank, regardless of the motives, because keeping them outside their natural channels leads to a decline in the ability of the Central Bank to finance foreign trade operations and weakens its ability to finance public expenditures even with adherence to rationalized spending and only salaries and support and stop spending on other chapters. This is a desirable and important requirement to stop the state of flow associated with financial corruption, the least that I can say about, is catastrophic and practiced by an organized network.”
He added that stopping the production and export of oil means a comprehensive stumble that will be reflected in price levels and lead to commitments and technical complications in the energy sector, which is the only hope for restoring economic stability to the country and restoring the course of development for Libya. The revenues will eventually go to the government’s accounts with the Central Bank in accordance with the law to manage public spending, and thus another cycle of the existing vicious circles will increase and rob the rest of the sovereignty and the components of the national state that manages its money and organizes its affairs.Al-Shahumi stressed that setting aside oil revenues and keeping them with the National Oil Corporation is not a solution at all, because this means that the Corporation will not find resources for the continuation of its work as well, and according to the law it manages its operations inside and through the laws of the regulating state. The Central Bank cannot also continue to finance public spending without supplying revenues and making them available for public spending depending on government lending, because we do not know the extent of the ability of the Central Bank to continue financing without revenues in the presence of a previous public debt that has not been settled, and we do not know what is the free balance of the total reserves of the Central Bank with which it finances operations foreign trade.
Al-Shahoumi stressed that the safest way out of this collective suicide is to approve the general budget from the legislative authority and to restrict spending on the condition of the supervision accompanying the Ministry of Finance by the Audit Bureau, and to temporarily stop spending on development and emergency in light of the breach and weakness of state institutions, and the weak ability to manage development operations and drown them in corruption, with the possibility of involving national accounting offices in accordance with specific standards and rules in the process of oversight and review accompanying government institutions to accelerate the ability of the Bureau to carry out tasks within a national project to enhance transparency and protect public money.
The Economist Suleiman Al-Shahoumi concluded his speech by saying that “we must find a way to stop this farce, and we must focus on developing and improving the sustainability of oil and gas, and not losing its role in the future of Libya. We must all share in this basic goal, which will help in the restoration of our economy. and restore stability to the country.”
The Prime Minister of the Government of National Unity, Abdul Hamid al-Dabaiba, discussed in a meeting today, Wednesday, the Adviser to the Secretary-General of the United Nations in Libya, Stephanie Williams and the head and members of the UN mission, the political situation in Libya and a number of topics, most notably the repercussions of the closure of Libyan oil facilities.
The meeting touched on discussing a number of economic and security files related to cooperation between the mission and the government, as well as the repercussions of the oil fields closure in Libya, the steps taken by the national unity government towards these “irresponsible” actions, and the need for legal measures against these actions.
The meeting also discussed the results of the Cairo meeting between the committees of the House of Representatives and the state to achieve a constitutional basis that can be built upon in the conduct of elections, which is the real goal of his government, as Dbeibeh affirmed, indicating that he is working in coordination with the commission to unify efforts to prepare for the elections.
The Prime Minister of the Government of National Unity, Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh said that the Council of Ministers strongly condemns the attack on oil facilities and the suspension of oil production and export, indicating that this absurdity will be accompanied by many problems, including the high price of foreign currency and the high prices of goods and foodstuffs, travel tickets and treatment expenses abroad and disruption of the expenses of students studying abroad and the repetition of a difficult living period for the Libyan people.
In his speech during the fifth regular meeting of the Council of Ministers of the National Unity Government on Tuesday evening, Dbeibeh added that the real perpetrators behind this criminal act are the political class that seeks extension and rejects the elections by empowering a new transitional authority, adding that when they failed to do so, they stopped oil and its export, in order to continue to humiliate this people and to blackmail and restrict their lives.
In his speech, the Prime Minister of the National Unity Government demanded that the Attorney General Seddiq Al-Sour officially open an immediate investigation into this attack on the homeland and its capabilities with all those involved in it, explaining that he instructed all security and military agencies to take all possible measures to deal with this crisis.
