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By Sami Zaptia.
Tripoli, 28 February 2013:
Libya’s worst kept secret is no longer.
Prime Minister Ali Zeidan finally came out in public at . . .[restrict]today’s press conference and confirmed that he had ordered the appointment of a new head of the LIA.
The rumour has been doing the rounds since the start of February. The internet has been busy dissecting and speculating about the decision for weeks.
The chatter has been about the fact that Zeidan, in his guise as head of the Board of Trustees, has appointed a new LIA head. However, the incumbent LIA head, Mohsen Derregia, has refused to give up his post – throwing doubt on the legality of his dismissal.
This speculation reached fever pitch when last week Prime Minister Zeidan in his press conference cryptically referred to those who had been relieved from their positions, but had refused to leave.
Libya Herald has been aware of the story, but has been unable to obtain any documentary evidence on which to base a story – until this week.
At the beginning of this week Libya Herald finally received a copy of the decision by the Libyan Investment Authority’s (LIA) Board of Trustees removing Mohsen Derregia, Chairman and CEO from his post. The documents read as follows:
Decision No. (2) 2013 by the LIA Board of Trustees entitled “Regarding Appointing Chairman of the Board and CEO of the LIA” stipulates in Article (1) “The temporary appointment of Mr Ali Mohamed Salem Hibri Chairman and CEO of the LIA who commences the role of the Board of Directors until the appointment of a Board of Directors and a CEO”.
Article (2) annuls Board of Trustees decision No. (14) 2012 which had reappointed the Board of Directors of the LIA.
Article (3) stipulates that this decision is effective from its date and annuls all previous decisions. The decision was not signed by any individual name, but by the Board of Trustees.
This decision was dated 30th January 2013 and is accompanied by a letter dated 7th February 2013 addressed directly to Mohsen Derregia informing him of the decision of the Board of Trustees appointing Ali Hibri and goes on to state “on the occasion of the end of your appointment with responsibilities within the LIA we direct heartfelt thanks and appreciation on your efforts during the duration of the past period”. The letter was signed by Hussein Abuhadi.
Armed with the above documents, Libya Herald emailed the LIA head this week. Libya Herald has been seeking an interview with Mohsen Derregia for a month. Within minutes of emailing the above documents to the LIA, we received a phone call and an interview was arranged within an hour.
During the interview, Mr Derregia made a forceful case for his decision to remain in office based on legal, procedural and political reasons.
Moreover, whilst respecting Libya Herald’s right to publish this news in English, he appealed to us on the basis of “Libya’s national interest”. He agreed that the news was being widely circulating on the internet in Arabic and to an extent in English.
However, he felt that if it were published in Libya Herald it would have ramifications on Libya’s investments abroad.
Libya Herald agreed to hold off publication temporarily and at least until we could give the Prime Minister a chance to counter Mr Derregia’s side of the story.
Upon contacting the Prime Minister’s office and informing them of our desire to publish the documents and the news in English, we were invited in for a meeting during which we were asked to delay publication until the Prime Minister could reflect and until the Cabinet met on Thursday (28th).
The decision to delay publication was not an easy decision for Libya Herald. We explained to both the Prime Minister’s office and the LIA head that it would be temporary. We stressed that it was not our role to do either the job of the LIA or the Prime Minister. Our role is the publication of news – responsibly yes, but ultimately we owed a transparent duty to our readers.
Ultimately, the Prime Minister solved Libya Herald’s dilemma and conflict of interest between transparency and the greater national good today – by publicly naming the LIA at today’s press conference.
Libya Herald will be publishing an exclusive interview with the LIA head Mohsen Derregia in which he explains why he felt he was right in not leaving his post.
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