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By Ahmed Elumami
Tripoli, 24 June 2013:
The GNC has today approved a new body designed to cut through red tape and improve . . .[restrict]the performance of the country’s ponderous bureaucracy.
The Administrative Control Authority was first mooted by congressmen frustrated by the inability of the existing Audit Bureau to influence control the financial and administrative performance. After considerable debate the 56 clause bill was passed into law, though a provision that would have folded the Audit Bureau into the new ACA was rejected. The new body will report directly to the GNC while the Audit Bureau will continue to work to the prime minister’s office.
The ACA has been empowered to oversee the bureaucracy, but it is not yet clear how sweeping those powers will be, nor whether they will be exercise-able without prior reference to the Congress.
Much may also depend on the quality of the ACA’s leadership and the personnel it hires, along with the early release of funds to allow it to do its job. The failure of the Libya bureaucratic machine to release allocated funds in a timely manner, has proved a major impediment to the execution of important programmes. It would be ironic if the same fate befell the new ACA.
Congresswoman Naema Hami explained to the Libya Herald: “It has been agreed to form a committee to appoint a head for the Administrative Control Authority, which will alleviate workload on the Audit Bureau.”
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