By Libya Herald reporter.
Tripoli, 11 September 2015:
Over 20,000 people are claiming ”Investment Portfolio” salaries without having National ID Numbers, the Tripoli based authorities claim.
The so-called Investment Portfolio salaries are distributed by state-owned companies set up under the Qaddafi regime that are in theory supposed to act as a form of a social security fund distributing salaries to low income Libyans.
Their helping the low paid in Libyan society was used by the Qaddafi regime as a pretext to take over the running of some state-owned Libyan companies under the umbrella of the Economic and Social Development Fund (ESDF), referred to as the Development Fund or Sunduq al Inma in Arabic.
The ESDF owns or partly owns a plethora of companies across a wide range of sectors from tourism, manufacturing, real estate to banking.
In 2009 the ESDF was estimated to employ about 27,000 people and worth about US$ 11 bn of assets.
However, the ESDF was no more than a political ploy used at the time by the Qaddafi regime and his sons to ”privatize” and redistribute control over Libyan state assets.
ESDF companies were perceived as inefficient and corrupt hiding behind a fig-leaf of being private sector companies, but were in reality totally state controlled concerns.
They were popularly perceived by Libyans as being used by Qaddafi’s cronies to syphon off state wealth and distribute jobs to political and tribal allies as well as adding yet another impenetrable layer of state bureaucracy.
Since the creation of the ESDF in 2006, it has unfairly crowded out the stunted Libyan private sector and failed in its main aim to provide a growing and generous income for Libyas low paid.
As a result of a recent investigations and reform into the distribution of ESDF salaries to the low paid, the Tripoli authorities are to set up a new computerized data base using on the National ID Number.
By using the National ID Number it is hoped that all those claiming a salary who do not qualify would be eliminated. [/restrict]
