By Libya Herald reporter.
Tunis, 8 April 2015:
In a lengthy statement aimed specifically at clarifying the status of the suspended-cum-sacked Minister of . . .[restrict]Interior, Omar Sinki, Prime Minister Abdullah Thinni left no room for doubt where he stands on the issue.
Thinni said that Sinki was incapable, has breached laws, had questionable disbursements of money and is not the appropriate person for the job.
It will be recalled that Prime Minister Abdullah Thinni removed Sinki from his post on 10 February four days after the Interior Minister had accused General Khalifa Hafter of being a dictator and had called for UNSMIL’s dialogue to be held in Misrata, his home town. At the time, it was assumed that this was the reason for his suspension.
There then ensued a period of confusion and power struggle between Prime Minister Thinni, Sinki and the HoR.
Sinki posted a statement on 11 February on his Ministry of Interior Facebook page saying that he did not accept his removal from office by his Prime Minister. He had insisted that only the HoR had the power to remove him from office and he was carrying on his duties as normal.
In response, the HoR on 13 February rebutted Sinki’s claim to return to office, saying that Thinni had not reversed his initial decision and that Sinki was indeed suspended subject to an HoR investigation.
The head of the HoR Defence and National Security Committee, Fathalla Al-Saity, subsequently denied that Sinki was being investigated by the HoR.
In yesterday’s statement, Thinni said that ‘’The Prime Minister is responsible for the government and for the Ministers and he has the right, when he finds shortcomings or the lack of capability to run a Ministry to take the necessary decisions in order to protect the national responsibility’’, he said in a preprepared statement read out at the cabinet office in Al-Beida.
‘’Interior Minister Sinki was given 6 full months and during this period he was unable to even establish a secretariat for his Ministry of Interior, which is the foundation of a Ministry’s work. The MOI to this hour is the only ministry that has no secretariat or building or staff.
‘’The Ministry is but a briefcase that the Minister travels with him’’, Thinni added mockingly. ‘’We advised him to seek the advice of some experts, however, I regret, he was unable to.
‘’Based on that, and in order to protect the higher national interest of the nation and our commitment to the responsibility (of the position of Prime Minister) and the danger, because the Ministry of Interior is one of the important Ministries, the government decided to suspend him (Sinki) from his position’’.
‘‘We are still of our view that this gentleman is totally incapable of running this Ministry’’.
‘’It is wrong to say that the government does not take instructions from a higher authority. There is a separation of powers. The House of Representatives (HoR) is the legislative authority and the government is the executive. It is permitted that the government seek the view of the legislature – but it is not obliged to it, unless it is a law passed by the HoR’’.
‘’However, with regards to the specialization of the government and its Ministers – this is the domain of the Prime Minister as he is the only one responsible before the HoR and the people’’, Thinni said emphatically stating where he thinks his powers reach.
Thinni said that there had been misunderstandings and errors with the letters his government had received from the HoR’s Interior Committee and the letter received from the President of the HoR and the error was corrected and the letters instructing him to reinstate Sinki were withdrawn.
‘’It is absolutely not possible that a Minister can reinstate himself and that he can send a letter (by-passing the Prime Minister) to a higher authority in which he states that he had recommenced his duties’’, explained the Prime Minister.
‘’The Interior Minister had committed many transgressions. He mentioned the (lack of) budgets made available to him – these were the same as the other Ministries and as received from the Ministry of Finance. All the allocations transferred in 2014, the Ministry of Interior received LD 15 million of which about LD 15 million were spent.’’, revealed Thinni
‘’Where did these allocations go and where were they spent’’, Thinni asked accusingly at Sinki. ‘’There were also transgressions in contracts whereby Sinki contracted in areas not permitted by law. Also there were transgressions in appointments whereby newly appointed employees were given promotions within days including giving them a military rank. There are many transgressions and the documents evidencing this are available and they will be transferred to the monitoring authorities’’, he added.
‘’I reiterate that anyone who cooperates with and implements instructions from the suspended Minister of Interior is transgressing. I fully believe that Mr Omar Sinki is incapable and is not the appropriate person at this stage to lead the Ministry of Interior – a Ministry which is entrusted to the government by the Libyan people’’.
‘’If the HoR wants to take a different decision, then at that time I will have something different to say’’, Thinni concluded threatening a clash with the HoR. [/restrict]
