By Ajnadin Mustafa.
Tripoli, 26 December 2014:
In a fatwa on government expenses, Sheikh Sadik Al-Ghariani has called on the Tripoli “government” of . . .[restrict]Omar Al-Hassi to stop paying salaries to anyone not turning up to work and cut the salaries of higher paid officials. The latter were too high, he said.
In a six-point call, Ghariani this week, sacked as Grand Mufti by the House of Representatives at the beginning of last month but still recognised by Hassi, also claimed that some people on the massive government payroll were being taking more than one salary, that a number of Libyan embassies were involved in corruption and that petrol, foodstuffs and other government-subsidised products were being smuggled out of the country. This was all haram, he said, and the authorities had to put a stop to it and punish those involved.
As an additional measure to save money, he said, no government employee should receive a bonus for work that he was already employed to do.
In his call to cut higher salaries he did not offer to lead the way by cutting his own, variously put at between LD 7,000 and LD 12,000 a month. [/restrict]
