By Libya Herald reporters.
Tunis, 1 December 2015:
The General National Congress has appointed a new and radically smaller cabinet to run the . . .[restrict]Libya Dawn government. It has cut the number of portfolios in the “National Salvation Government” from 25 to 12.
The reappointed premier Khalifa Ghwell will also be the defence minister.
No minister of oil has been selected to replace Mashallah Zwai who has been dropped. Gone also are two of the deputy prime minister posts along with the ministries covering industry, information, injured revolutionaries, Islamic affairs, labour, marine and agriculture, social affairs, tourism and transport.
Only four ministers, besides Ghwell himself, have kept their jobs. Mustafa Al-Ghleib stays on at Justice and Khalifa Musbah Al-Saroui at Education. The other survivors are Muhaned Younis, who keeps Local Government and Osama Abdul Salam Naji as Minister of State for GNC Affairs.
A new face is Benghazi HoR boycotter Ali Abuzakuk who gets the foreign affairs job from the controversial Mohamed Agheirani.
Among the other nine new entries are Abdulatif Gaddur, taken from the attorney-general’s office to run the Interior ministry. Al-Tahir Senussi gets Health, Nasr Saleh takes over Finance from Younes Otman Al-Barasi and Muftah Elfagieh who was Industry Minister replaces Suleiman Al-Ojaili at the Economy Ministry.
It is unclear why the GNC has taken this move at this time. With little cash to spend apart from on salaries (which in any event is controlled by the Central Bank), the Ghwell administration has spent much of its time seeking to finesse the migrant issue into some degree of formal recognition from the EU.
Ghwell’s old administration had not been without controversy. A month ago the then planning minister Ahmed Amaar Al-Ghadar was grabbed from his office by Haitham Tajouri’s Tripoli Revolutionaries’ Brigade who accused him of corruption. He is still being held. Ghwell’s own office also came under attack from the same direction.
As long ago as last May, Ghwell was reported to be considering slimming his cabinet down to just nine portfolios, mirrroring similar action taken at the time by Abdullah Thinni. [/restrict]
