A well-informed source told Sada Economic Newspaper that the Investigation Department of the Attorney General’s office issued an arrest warrant against officials of the Ministry of Local Government represented by the Tender Committee and a Supervisory Committee on the implementation of one of the contracts.
According to the source, the ministry’s officials have been charged with the serious abuse of authority and failure of maintaining public funds.
Global oil stocks which rose during the height of the pandemic are being steadily reduced, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Wednesday, but a second wave is slowing demand and will complicate efforts by producers to balance the market.
OPEC+ producers – OPEC members and others including Russia – plan to boost supply by 2 million barrels per day (bpd) from January and the IEA predicts a ceasefire in Libya will raise output there to 700,000 bpd in December from 300,000 bpd currently.
“There is only limited headroom for the market to absorb extra supply in the next few months,” the IEA said in its monthly report. “Those wishing to bring about a tighter oil market are looking at a moving target.”
The Minister of Health of the Government of National Accord (GNA) Khalifa Al-Bakoush said in a press conference Tuesday that “PCR” tests for Covid-19 are costing an arms and a leg, draining state funds as each single test costs (200 US dollars), as he claimed.
The Health Minister added, in the presser that was intended to detail the current epidemiological situation in Libya that they are doing 4500 tests a day and are planning to increase the number in the coming days.
He also said that “PCR” tests are being misused, claiming that it is not science-based behavior to conduct “PCR” tests for 400 or 500 workers in the same company just because they are suspected to have been in contact with someone who is a positive Covid-19 patient, saying the tests should only be carried out on those who show coronavirus symptoms.
“We are at a point that we either live with the virus or lose our lives to it. We all need to cooperate to limit the spread of coronavirus such as avoiding social events, which have led to a spike in cases the last two weeks in Libya. If the precautionary measures aren’t followed well, we might resort to total lockdown.” The Minister explained.
New leaks released by the US State Department revealed information related to the reasons that prompted former French President Nicolas Sarkozy to intervene in Libya to overthrow the late leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
A leaked American document from the mail of former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton showed that French President Nicolas Sarkozy ordered the intervention in Libya in order to preserve his country’s influence in the region.
The document, which bears the date of April 2, 2011, indicated that “whoever moved France to intervene in Libya in order to overthrow Gaddafi is what the man had of tons of gold, in addition to the large Libyan stockpile of oil.”
The document quoted sources close to Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi’s advisers, that “Muammar Gaddafi was subject to control of 143 tons of gold and a similar amount of silver.”
In late March 2011, these massive stocks of gold and silver were transferred from the Libyan Central Bank vaults in Tripoli to the city of Sabha, in southwestern Libya, towards the Libyan borders with Niger and Chad.
According to leaked Clinton letters, “Gaddafi intended to use these quantities of gold and silver to create an African currency based on the Libyan gold dinar, with this currency being the main one in French-speaking countries.”
The value of this quantity of gold and silver is estimated at more than 7 billion dollars, and French intelligence officers discovered this plan shortly after the start of the popular uprising in Libya against Gaddafi, and it was one of the important factors that prompted Sarkozy to intervene in Libya.
Powerboats destined for Libya have been stopped by the Customs Department at Malta Freeport over suspicion they were going to be used to ferry migrants.
The department said that over the past months and weeks, 23 containers, loaded with a powerboat each, were intercepted by its Strategic Trade and Sanctions Monitoring Unit.
The boats were withheld after discussions with the Sanctions Monitoring Board that is tasked with ensuring Maltese entities observe UN sanctions. Photos of the boats disseminated by the Customs Department suggest that they are used boats.
“The movement of these powerboats was considered restricted as contents within were maritime equipment suspected to potentially facilitate illegal migration,” the department said.
It added that the boats were prevented from proceeding to their intended destination on the provisions of a legal notice enacted this year introducing measures to combat smuggling activities in the central Mediterranean.
The ambassador of the United States to Libya Richard Norland met Tuesday with the Acting Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Libya, Stephanie Williams, and reiterated full US support for the UN-facilitated Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) process.
Norland said that through the UN-facilitated dialogue, Libyan parties are coming together peacefully to achieve a sovereign Libyan solution to end the conflict, promote transparent management of Libya’s economic resources, and finalize a roadmap to national elections, according to a statement by the US embassy in Libya.
He also expressed appreciation for Tunisia’s contributions to the success of the upcoming LPDF, welcoming the resumption of UN-facilitated military talks in Geneva on October 19, which build on the successful meetings hosted by Egypt in Hurghada and represent an important step toward a demilitarized solution in Central Libya and ultimate departure of foreign military elements from the country.
Following the meeting, Ambassador Norland said that after his recent consultations, particularly in Cairo and Ankara, he believed that the United States “is aligned with key international partners in support of these intra-Libyan dialogues”.
Norland indicated that the United States commends Libyan parties who are prepared to put the national interest ahead of their personal agendas through the LPDF.
Speaking in a televised interview with WTV channel and Tabadul Platform, the former director of the Libyan Foreign Investment Company (LAFICO), Sabri Gashout, denied the accusations mentioned by the Press Attaché of the Libyan Embassy in Tunisia, Jamal Al-Kafali, concerning pressures from the businessman Husni Bey on “ LAFICO- Tunis ” through his media.
“The charges focus on the sale of land belonging to Comaprim company, which is a Tunisian Company that has nothing to do with Libya,” he said, adding that this statement has no basis in truth.
“The banks took out the three lands of Comaprim as mortgages, including the land of Soukra.” he stated, admitting the existence of an oral negotiation with the businessman Husni Bey about the possibility of paying the loan of penalties and interest for fear of selling the land at auction and at any cost.
Gashout confirmed that a number of businessmen had been invited to participate, including Husni Bey. However, the stagnation of the mission real estate in Tunisia precluded any consent.
“The Tunisian market is not appropriate for pouring substantial funds.” he pointed out.
The Libyan Investment Authority has appointed the American “Ernst & Young” international accounting company, to review and audit the financial statements and final accounts of the institution for the past year.
The Authority stated in a statement on its official page on Tuesday that it completed the first phase of the transformation project at the end of last September, and will announce the end of the project to evaluate all its assets in the past two years in early November.
It is worth noting that the head of the Libyan Investment Authority, Ali Mahmoud, said last August that the institution’s Board of Trustees would consider appointing a major international company to conduct a full independent external auditing of the institution’s assets and portfolios after Deloitte company had completed preparing the institution’s financial statements and prepared them to be ready for review and auditing by the International company.
The Governor of Libya’s Central Bank, Sadiq Al-Kabir, has warned that the country faces “economic collapse”, if it does not increase oil production.
Al-Kabir said the economy faced a “bullet in the head”, due to the collapse in oil exports. He told lawmakers in Tripoli that earnings from oil exports had collapsed from $53 billion in 2012, to almost nothing in 2020.
He stated that Libya needs to produce 1.7 million barrels per day to compensate for current spending levels. The Central Bank’s Governor added that the country’s debt had reached 270% of Libya’s gross domestic product.
The Governor criticized the eastern-based Interim Government on Tuesday by claiming that 15 billion Libyan dinars were printed in Russia to prop-up the Tobruk-based government.
