The Prime Minister of the new executive authority, Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah, met Sunday with the Governor of the Central Bank of Libya (CBL), Al-Siddiq Al-Kabir, in Tripoli.
During the meeting, both parts reviewed efforts to ensure financial and monetary stability as well as the unification of state institutions to achieve national goals.
During a televised interview for Libyan WTV channel and Tabadul Platform, member of the House of Representatives (HoR) and head of the Libyan General Union of Chambers of Commerce, Mohammed Al-Raied, has accused managers of the customs, including Mustafa Al-Tarjuman, of signing of a contract in 2015 to pass the cargo tracking note system with a Turkish company, the thing that enables the customs to obtain funds outside of Libya.
Al-Raied added that this issue harms the Libyan economy by spending about 100 million to 150 million euros that would have been paid from the parallel market.
He also pointed out that the Customs Authority entered into a contract, in 2015, with an unknown foreign company called “Intissar Africa”, without obtaining an approval neither from the Ministry of Finance nor from the Prime Minister, stressing that it costs the Libyan economy a huge amount surpassing £150 million annually.
“This enables the Customs Authority to acquire hard currency abroad… This hard currency is shared between the company and the customs,” he said.
Al-Raied said that the Turkish company has nothing to do with the commodity or its price or value, stressing that it was launched only for “business.”
He explained that the Turkish company had contracted with states facing many issues, such as Iraq and some African countries, adding that it doesn’t know about the quality of the goods.
Al-Raied reminded that we are facing an issue regarding the shipping price as a result of the Coronavirus epidemic.
According to him, we have been also facing a failure in opening the letters of credits since August until the half of the month.
New Libya presidential council leader Mohamed Menfi was received on Thursday by Libyan National Army (LNA) commander, Khalifa Haftar, at the General Command headquarters in the Rajmah area of Benghazi.
Dring the meeting, Haftar expressed the support of the armed forces for the peace process, the army’s quest to preserve democracy, the peaceful transfer of power and support for the new presidential council.
It will be reminded that the new head of Libya’s Presidential Council, Mohamed Menfi, arrived in Benghazi on Thursday for his first visit to Libya since the vote by the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum in Geneva last Friday.
The Implementation and Management Authority of the Man-Made River (MMR) announced that there will be a suspension of water supply to residential areas in east of Benghazi, next Saturday, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
According to the MMR’s statement, the Housing and Utilities sector in Benghazi requested that the water supply should be cut off at the Airport Road and Fifth Ring Road junction in order to carry out works and connect the line to the public network.
The Libyan Audit Bureau revealed wednesday that the total 2019 expenses of the diplomatic missions abroad reached LD 311 million.
According to the Audit Bureau, the first section’s expenditure exceeded LD 234 million, and the underexpenditure on salaries did not reach 10%, despite the Presidential Council’s decision to reduce the salaries of those working in these missions by 31.25%.
The Audit Bureau also revealed that the second section’s expenditure approached LD 60 million, and that the number of embassies, consulates and diplomatic missions abroad increased from 138 in 2018 to 150 in 2019.
Moreover, the Audit Bureau noted that monitored multiple Libyan missions in one country until the number of missions reached five in the same country.
The spokesman for the Municipal Council of Sebha, Osama Al-Wafi, said in a press statement to Tabadul that Sebha Municipal Council imposed on Wednesday a partial lockdown in the city, starting from Thursday, for a period of three days, from 6:00 pm until 6:00 am.
According to him, this step came after the increase of the number of the new Coronavirus cases in the municipality.
He also stressed the need to stop cultural gatherings, sports and artistic activities, dialogues, social events and training courses to further limit the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Libyan Airlines announced that it operated its first flight between Tripoli and Benghazi onWednesday. This comes after the unification of the company, which was split in recent years between the east and west of the country.
According to the flight schedule, flight LN602 arrived at Benghazi’s Benina Airport from Tripoli’s Mitiga Airport at 12:10 pm. It is scheduled to depart to Tripoli on flight number LN603.
The National Oil Corporation (NOC) is waiting to receive a portion of the 9 billion dinars in temporary funding, about 2 billion dollars that the government will provide to state institutions to cover wages and medicine bills.
The Central Bank of Libya will transfer funds under a temporary financial arrangement for two months until a consolidated budget for 2021 is fully approved, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing sources.
Speaking to Tabadul platform, the Libyan businessman Husni Bey said that the new government led by Abdul Hamid Dbeibah should be a technocratic mini-cabinet, among its early priorities is paving the way for conducting presidential elections by the end of this year and resolving the urgent issues which concern the citizens, similar to combating COVID-19, implementing the law on Allowances for Children and Wives, as well as increasing the minimum wage.
“I hope the Prime Minister designate, Abdel Hamid Dabaiba, would choose a group of experienced technocrats, such as Fathi Bashagha, Muhammad Khaled al-Ghwail, Fadeel al-Amin, Othman Abdul Jalil, Faraj Bumtari and others who have the necessary experience, especially since the government is running out of time,” the businessman said.
The Ministry of Education announced the resumption of lessons after ensuring their readiness for use, according to the conditions set out by the Scientific Advisory Committee, while confirming that it would not resort to suspension again, unless it was in the event of a complete lockdown.
The Ministry also confirmed that more than 5,500 schools were inspected, and the conditions demanded for the return to studies were entirely satisfied.