By Hadi Fornaji.
Benghazi, 16 August:
The president of the Benghazi Local Council, Shahat Awami, has resigned from his post after just two-and-a-half . . .[restrict]months in office, citing unworkable conditions.
He has been temporarily replaced by the vice president of the council, Faraj Abbar, having tendered his resignation on Wednesday.
It has been reported on various Arabic websites that the reason for Awami’s resignation was death threats from people on the council’s payroll who had not received wages due.
However, this version of events has been challenged by the spokesman of the local council, Khaled Al-Jazwee, who has insisted that the truth is quite different.
“Awami received threats to his life, but that was not why he resigned”, Jazwee, told the Libya Herald today.
“The real problem was that we have no budget; no headquarters; and no administrative structure. We are operating out of a modest office building belonging to the health ministry, and it is hardly adequate”.
Al-Jazwee revealed that the council have just two million dinars in their account, in spite of a nominal allocation of 68 million dinars by the government in Tripoli for the first six months of this year.
“We have received only a fraction of this sum to date, and we are due a further 31 million dinars for the second half of 2012”, Jazwee continued, explaining that this went some way to explaining why many people have not been paid the wages they are owed.
The council will elected a permanent new president after Eid, which is due to take place in the next few days. [/restrict]
