The Tripoli-based Audit Bureau has referred one of its senior officials, Matouk Ali Matouk, to the Public Prosecutor’s Office for suspicion of corruption with a leading state entity.
In response to the charges against him, Ali Matouk denied that he had received a bribery of millions of dollars in exchange for approval to give a loan from the Economic Development Fund to an Oil and Gas Company. This came during his statement to Libyan WTV channel.
“We received information about suspicions of corruption within this Oil and Gas Company (…) so I have frozen its bank accounts for about one and a half months, without reference to the Audit Bureau”, said Ali MAtouk.
In its further efforts to curb the COVID-19 pandemic, the UN-backed Libyan government on Wednesday extended the country’s 8pm to 6am curfew for another 10 days starting from June, 17.
Moreover, a 24-hour curfew will be imposed every Friday and Saturday.
The Tripoli government also stressed that a total curfew for the south of Libya and a ban on travel between cities will be implemented as well.
Mosques and malls, in addition to other stores that do not provide essential services, such as clothing, shoes, cafes, and restaurants will remain closed, as well as all religious, national, and social gatherings and events, according to the new order.
In a one-hour teleconference on June 16, the Director-General of the National Center for Disease Control (NCDC),Badereddin Annajar, joined by the director of the NCDC’s Sebha branch, Abdulhamid Elfakhri, and the director of the Public Health Emergency Office, Kamel Taloa, briefed Ambassador Norland regarding the COVID-19 situation across Libya.
Ambassador Norland commended the NCDC’s efforts, and those of its local and international partners, to expand disease surveillance,strengthen public health laboratories, equip isolation wards, and boost public health awareness despite the challenges posed by ongoing conflict.
The Ambassador and Annajar, Elfakhri, and Taloa expressed particular concern about the situation in the Fezzan, where public health infrastructure remains lacking in a majority of communities.
The Ambassador highlighted U.S. support for efforts to establish a ceasefire leading to a political resolution of the conflict in Libya, and encouraged all Libyan authorities to set aside political differences to focus on the current health crisis.
The U.S. government has pledged over $12 million to COVID-19 response in Libya. This funding will be used to detect, prevent, and control the spread of the virus, with a special focus on vulnerable Libyans, migrants, and refugees. Since 2011, the U.S. government has invested over $715 million in Libya’s public health sector and other forms of humanitarian assistance, stabilization, and development.
The National Oil Corporation (NOC) expressed its deep concern about the continued forced-closures of oil facilities, which negatively impacted the surface facilities , transport pipelines and crude oil tanks, which led to the collapse of one of the tanks in “Al-Sharara field”.
NOC’s specialists predicted that dangerous consequences for the millions of barrels stored as They are vulnerable to explosions and mass destruction in the event that the fields and ports turn into military operation areas instead of oil areas.
At this time, the National Oil Corporation expressed its regret for the militarization of the oil facilites. Nevertheless, it continued to fulfill its responsibilities as specialized teams conduct many technical consultations, public safety requirements, process safety and implement precautionary measures in anticipation of any emergency, in coordination with partners and within the framework of informing the Libyan citizen who has the real direct interest in their oil capabilities, the experts from the National Oil Corporation and its partners concluded the need to empty all crude oil stocks, and also to provide storage capacities to store condensate associated with the produced gas and so that the gas production does not stop after a few days, the gas is used to generate Electrical energy to all regions of the country .
The National Oil Corporation also implored all those responsible for the closures of its facilities to the need to neutralize the oil sector from any bargaining, and to the need to end the ongoing oil facilities closure immediately and allow the resumption of oil exports to ensure the achievement of the minimum revenues that will guarantee the Libyans the continuation of salaries and services and maintain the country’s foreign exchange reserves.
“More tenacity and insistence on dealing with these vital capabilities of the country as war spoils, and a way to blackmail the “NOC” and prevent it from doing its work for the benefit of all Libyans, makes these oil facilities a hotbed of turmoil and war that will only bring destruction to these vital facilities, which means the destruction of the only source that feeds the Libyan people.”The stated.
Turkish government officials including the foreign and finance ministers arrived in Tripoli on Wednesday to hold talks with Libya’s internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA), the GNA said in a Facebook post.
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Finance Minister Berat Albayrak, presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalın and Hakan Fidan, head of the Turkish National Intelligence Organization, were some of the top names that attended the meeting with the GNA.
The GNA’s airports authority announced that it is extending its air travel ban for another 10 days, starting from June 17, as another measure in tackling the Coronavirus pandemic.
The National Center for Disease Control analyzed on Tuesday, June 16, 1038 blood samples. The center confirmed that 1021 samples have tested negative for Covid-19 and 17 sample tested positive.
Libya’s Coronavirus cases have continued to rise daily with the latest total up to 484. Recoveries have also risen to 76 while deaths remain at 10.
The new positive cases are spread across south Libya and are a mixture of new cases, cases that have mixed with existing cases and cases that have been repatriated from abroad.
In a televised interview for Libyan WTV channel yesterday, the head of the media bureau in the Audit Bureau, Ahmed Al-Dayekh, has revealed corruption and bribery cases for an official working within the Audit Bureau itself.
Ahmed Al-Dayekh said that the Audit Bureau had frozen the financial accounts of Matouk Ali Matouk, the person involved in the corruption case, while the investigation is ongoing, adding that Matouk had been dismissed from his post.
“We have sent the investigation results to the Public Prosecutor’s Office to end the immunity of the Audit Bureau employee involved in the corruption case and to get the go-ahead to probe him for it.” The Audit Bureau said, adding that for the greater good of the country, the details of the case will be revealed once the Public Prosecutor’s Office concludes the case.
“Nobody is above the law. Anyone involved in corruption in Libya shall be held accountable for it.” The Audit Bureau added.
For his part, Matouk Ali Matouk denied being involved in suspicions of corruption and bribes, asserting that he has never received bribes.
Moreover, he has denied the news circulated on social media pages that said a senior Audit Bureau official had disappeared after he had received a bribery of millions of dollars by a state financial entity in Libya for his coverup of delicate violations.
Within the framework of the European Union (EU) Trust Fund for Africa, the EU provides €1 million to International Medical Corps (IMC) in Libya for a new program which aims to support the country’s health system by providing health services to vulnerable populations most affected by conflict and the challenging situation created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Through this project, IMC will equip and train the staff of two primary healthcare centers and one hospital in Tripoli to respond to the challenges caused by COVID-19 and enable them to continue to provide normal healthcare services.
One of the main challenges in Libya is a shortage of personal protective equipment (masks, gloves, respirator masks, etc.), which is essential to keep health workers and patients safe from infection.
This project will distribute this essential equipment to the staff of these facilities and train them on the correct use of it as well as on the correct treatment of suspected/confirmed COVID-19 patients.
To support the hospital, IMC will also work closely with the Libyan Ministry of Health and National Center for Disease Control to expand the physical and operational capacity of the hospital’s Isolation Unit with added beds, furniture and wall dividers.
Training will cover more than the health impacts of COVID-19 to enable health workers to respond to the psychological effects of the virus and movement restrictions on patients.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has announced that Libya witnessed the death of 77 children between the ages of 6 and 17 during the armed conflict in the country in 2019.
Guterres explained in a special report on children in armed conflicts during 2019, that at least 77 children have been killed or maimed because of the military conflict in western Libya.
The UN report indicated that most incidents occurred from artillery shelling, airstrikes, including UAVs attacks, and explosives of remnants of war.
The UN report verified 24 attacks on nine schools and fifteen hospitals, as well as other 24 attacks on health facilities.
The report stated that the hostilities forced approximately 220 schools to close in and around Tripoli, and deprived at least 116,000 children of their right to education.
