By Sami Zaptia
Tripoli, 3 September:
Libya’s newly elected General National Congress (GNC) reversed its decision within 72 hours regarding the level of . . .[restrict]pay it should award its members.
The GNC had decided last week to award its members the equivalent remuneration package as that of the prime minister, including an extensive benefits and expenses package for housing, travel and health insurance.
The current prime minister Abdurrahim Al-Kib has chosen not to be paid a salary. However, his deputy prime ministers are currently on LD 11,000 per month.
The announcement of the GNC to set its own pay level and at the same rate as that of the prime minister was met with public criticism. Many had compared the practice of making hasty decisions and then quickly reversing them with the detested practices of the old regime.
The former regime had a long established practice of concocting self-interest decisions overnight in the living rooms of the various regime power groups and cronies with no public discussion, debate or input.
After announcing these decisions they would often have to suspend them or reverse them as either a more powerful self-interest power group or individual opposed them.
GNC member, Hassan Lamin, defending the decision explained in a live debate on Al-Wataniya TV last night that “the way it was proposed and voted upon was wrong. Many members did not understand what they were voting on”.
“As soon as we finished voting we realised it was a mistake. What was intended was to equate the GNC president with that of the prime minister”, he added.
On the decision of the GNC to hastily revoke their earlier decision of 72 hours in view of a public outcry, GNC member Lamin said that ‘this repeal of the earlier decision was not as a result of the negative public reaction to the initial decision’.
However, he implicitly accepted that the GNC members were still unfamiliar with parliamentarian processes when he admitted that ‘we are still learning the process, but at least everything we do is now transparent and in full view of the public’, referring to the live televising of the GNC sessions and the new freedom enjoyed by the media in post-Qaddafi Libya
GNC official spokesperson, Omar Hmaidan further clarified the initial decision by explaining that the “principle of equating the GNC president’s position with that of the prime minister was based on the logic that the GNC is the supreme legislative body and it did not seem logical and correct that it should be at a lower rate of remuneration than that of its politically inferior in sovereignty: the prime minister and the executive branch”.
However, he still insisted that the reversal decision “was not based on financial reasons I assure you”, he stressed to the interviewer live on TV.
The public outcry against the GNC decision to set its members’ pay was as much against the fact that they had set their own pay, as opposed to the amount.
Many Libyans argue that if Libya wishes to attract the most capable people to the top government jobs, it must pay them well.
Equally, many believe that by paying well it is less likely that high government and political appointees can be tempted by corruption.
It is now believed that the GNC will appoint an independent committee to set remuneration rates for its members.
See Libya Herald’s story on the GNC awarding itself the same pay grade as the prime minister: http://www.libyaherald.com/?p=13513 [/restrict]
