By Sami Zaptia.
Tripoli, 10 July 2013:
Speaking at Sunday’s press conference, Prime Minister Ali Zeidan said that the government needs more money . . .[restrict]quickly in order to be able meet its committments.
The government, he said, had numerous commitments including those of political dissedents under the Qaddafi regime, the towns destroyed during the Revolution, the internally and externally displaced, the training and arming of the army, the security of Libya’s southern borders, rape victums, the councils, sewage works etc.
With regards to rearming the army, we need to purchase new advanced weapons from abroad because the army’s old weapons were either destroyed or pilfered by Libyans, said Zeidan.
To this end, the Prime Minister said that he hoped that the GNC would provide more finance quickly or the government would be in a “difficult situation”.
Members of the public who are making demands have come to us complaining. I have spoken to GNC members and they seem ready to agree (on providing increased finances).
Zeidan also complained about a new condition inserted in the 2013 Budget which prevented the government from moving money from one section of the budget to another. This has become the exclusive right of the GNC.
He said that the process of requesting that money be transfered from one section to another was taking long and the GNC was too busy and in order to reduce the load on both the GNC and the government, the government should be given the right to move allocated money from one section of the budget to another.
This power – for the government to transfer funds from one section to another – existed during the Kingdom and during Qaddafi’s time, he added, and it was the first time it has been removed from the executive. [/restrict]
