During the so-called Disclosure Session held by every ministry of the Tripoli based Libyan government, the Minister of Economy and Trade, Mohammed Al-Hwej, said that there is no corruption and that those who keep talking about corruption, including the media, are conducting an unpatriotic war against the nation.
Hwej said ‘‘We are here today during this disclosure. These modest numbers in all ministries. There are those who talk about corruption. Where is the corruption? In all honesty, it has become a war against the nation”.
He said there are three oversight agencies, the Administrative Control Authority (ACA), the Audit Bureau and the National Anti-Corruption Council (NACC). He then quoted the Quran saying ‘’ultimately there is the oversight of God.’’
‘‘Therefore, those who talk of corruption and destruction: where are the numbers? Even the Libyan dinar does not have the value it used to have’’. Quoting the Quran again, he said ‘‘let us see the numbers and proof then we can judge’’.
‘‘Honestly, and I am sorry to say, the media has started destroying the nation (by continually talking about corruption)’’.
Comment and Analysis
The comments about corruption in Libya are very telling about how Minister Hwej, a product of the Qaddafi regime – having served as Economy Minister before the 2011 February Revolution that ended the 42-year Qaddafi era. They are also very indicative of the attitude of the Aldabaiba government to corruption.
Hwej was ostensibly taking part in a so-called Disclosure Session organised by the Aldabaiba government aimed at projecting more transparency, accountability and disclosure by the Tripoli government.
For Hwej to deny that there is much corruption in Libya because as he said ‘‘show us the numbers’’ and that there are three oversight agencies monitoring corruption is neither here nor there.
Libya ranks as the 8th most corrupt country in the world
Hwej may have overlooked, forgotten or does not know that Libya ranks as the 8th most corrupt country in the world – according to the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index (CPI) for 2024.
It is ranked number 173 out of 180 countries and has dropped five places in the index since 2023 with a CPI score of 13 out of 100. A scale of 0 indicates highly corrupt while a scale of 100 signifies very clean.
According to the ranking, Libya is more corrupt than Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea, Nicaragua, Sudan, North Korea, Myanmar, Haiti and Turkmenistan.
In contrast, Denmark scores 90 and is ranked the least corrupt country in the world.
Successive Audit Bureau Reports cite wide profligacy and mismanagement
It will also be recalled that successive Audit Bureau Annual Reports have cited wide examples of profligacy and mismanagement.
The 2022 Audit Bureau Annual Report, for example, had cited examples of profligacy by ministries and public entities on housing benefits, cars, mobile phones, laptops, clothes, meals, travel, gifts etc.
Attorney General reports on charges and sentencing
Minister Hwej seems to have also overlooked the numerous reports by the Attorney General’s Office of various Libyans in prominent positions such as embassies, investment agencies and local banks being either charged or jailed for corruption.
CBL reports a continuing rentier, welfare state
The Minister seems to have also overlooked the fact that the Central Bank of Libya regularly reports how the Libyan economy is still very much a welfare, rentier state. The latest CBL report, up to 28 February 2025, says Libya’s state budget relies 98 percent on hydrocarbon revenues, or LD 17.7 billion, while other non-oil revenues were only LD 325 million.
Furthermore, the CBL report says while total government spending for the period amounted to about LD 8.4 billion, of this, LD 5.9 billion was spent on state-sector salaries and LD 2.5 billion was spent on subsidies.
Failure to diversify economy, reduce crippling subsidies, increase dinar FX value
Minister Hwej has been speaking at every official occasion, since he was a minister during the Qaddafi era, of how the economy needs to diversify. Yet he has personally failed to diversify the Libyan economy.
He has failed to create more local productivity and manufacturing to increase local production, reduce Libya’s hard currency import bill and save the country hard currency thereby increasing the foreign exchange value of the Libyan dinar. This would increase the purchasing power of Libyan citizens.
He has failed to activate the private sector significantly to create more private sector jobs so that the state-sector salary bill can be shrunk to the extent that money saved on that budget can be invested elsewhere more productively.
Insensitive comments?
Economy Minister Hwej’s comments will come across to most ordinary Libyans as insensitive. They will come across as comments made by a Minister who held positions under the Qaddafi regime, for all that that is worth, and who sends a message that he is cocooned and out of touch with the general public’s feelings.
Libyans want more efficiency with their money?
The average Libyan citizen has been waiting since the 2011 revolution for the more efficient use of their oil money. They want their money spent on better health, education and training, diversifying of the economy away from hydrocarbons, increasing the value of their dinar, reducing prices, better roads, better public transport etc, etc.
Does minister Hwej not get stuck in traffic like most citizens as his armoured car and motorcade is whizzed by? Did he not drive through rivers and lakes of roads and motorways when it rained heavily in Tripoli recently? Does the minister have to queue at banks every month to receive his monthly salary? Has the minister ever used the free hospitals for his or his family’s healthcare?
Blame the media
Finally, Hwej accused the media of claiming that there is much corruption in Libya and for being unpatriotic and destructive. It is the media’s role to hold a government accountable and it is for Minister Hwej to refute the assertions by Transparency International and the Audit Bureau that there is much corruption in Libya.
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Libya 8th most corrupt state in the world according to the latest index for 2024
Audit Bureau 2023 Annual Report: 2023 state subsidies amounted to LD 68.5 billion
Audit Bureau saves Libya more than LD 583 million in overpriced contracts in 2023
