By Libya Herald reporter.
Beida, 17 April 2015:
The government in Beida has appointed Ezzedine Abu Yousef Al-Khana as Assistant Undersecretary of the . . .[restrict]Ministry of Local Government of the Eastern Region. It is believed he will be responsible for helping ensure local municipalities obtain funding, so far lacking.
In a statement yesterday, the government’s new spokesman, Hatim Ali Al-Araibi, said that funds would be disbursed to all municipalities once approved by local government ministry but priority would be given to places which had suffered “significant damage” as a result of clashes.
Benghazi has already been singled out by Prime Minister Abdullah Al-Thinni as being at the top of the government’s funding list.
However, as one local government source told to the Libya Herald today, the Beida government at the moment “has no money to give to anyone”.
Although Al-Khana is said to have had plans to set up a parallel organisation to the Central Committee for Municipal Council Elections (CCMCE), run from Beida, the government there and the House of Representatives have quietly quashed the idea, according CCMCE sources.
Having managed to organise most local elections in the country despite the divisions and the political crisis, CCMCE is widely feted as Libya’s great success story. It is, however, currently facing its own dire shortage of funds, with LD 10 million in outstanding bills and salaries, and its activities are currently frozen.
The local political situation too has prevented the handful of contests to be organised from takening place – in Bani Walid, Aziziya, Yefren, Al-Jmail and Ajilat – as well as unification of Zawia into a single municipalities. [/restrict]
