By Sami Zaptia.
Tripoli, 16 July 2013:
Prime Minister Ali Zeidan said that his government’s finances are “open and transparent and available for . . .[restrict]inspection” at Sunday’s press conference.
Zeidan was reacting to media and public criticism of a lack of achievement despite the LD 60-odd billion budget made available to him by the GNC.
“There is talk that we have billions to spend”, Zeidan retorted. “We have a set budget and we are not even permitted to transfer money from one section of the budget to another”, he complained. “We have asked to be able to transfer and have asked for further finances to meet some urgent needs”.
Zeidan then went out of his way to point out that about LD 20 bn (31%) of the 2013 LD 66.86 Budget was salaries, about LD 10 bn (15.9%) was subsidies and about LD 19.3 bn (28.9%) for development and reconstruction.
Zeidan implied that the budget set for his government was limited and insufficient and that spending was predetermined by the various sectors of the budget. He also said that the budget was late in being approved by the GNC and that his government was only in office for less than a year. [/restrict]
