By Sami Zaptia.
Tripoli, 5 June, 2013:
The Prime Minister launched a powerful appeal today to the Libyan public not to be . . .[restrict]so quick to criticise his government. He called on people to understand the scale of the challenges it faced.
“This government came to power for reasons of national duty, not political wrestling or personal ambition,” he said his weekly press conference. “We took up office in exceptional circumstances. So when we are assessed, those who asses us should take this into consideration,” he stated.
People had seen all the various acts of civil disobedience, the strikes, and so forth, he said. “We also inherited a heavy legacy”, he added, referring to wages, institutional weakness and with many civil servants failing to turn up to work.
The state was weak, he stated, “and the government is weak as a result”. He appealed to the public to take that into account.
In relation to budget spending, which has been cause for considerable criticism of the government, Zeidan said that it needed to be borne in mind that the majority of the budget went to wages and subsidies. “We have many stalled projects, which have to be finished but we need finance for them,” he said.
He promised that in a couple of days’ time there would be a live TV presentation by the Finance Minister Alkilani Abdelqadir Al-Jazi and others specifically on the budget. There had been much talk, he said, about how the budget was being spent. “We need to clarify this. I remind you that we only started to disburse the budget a few weeks ago. We are restricted by the Audit Bureau procedures.”
He went out of his way to point out that this was in no way a criticism of those who are working at the Audit Bureau, but purely of the regulations they had inherited. Ultimately, Zeidan said, “if anyone has any proof of corruption (of the government), please bring it forward”.
Regarding the child benefit, he said it would begin to be paid out before Ramadan.
In regard to the new municipal elections, he said that they would start as soon as possible. Municipal budgets, he explained, could only be distributed once the councils had been elected. He therefore urged all those concerned to start the election process urgently. He thanked the outhoing local councils for the role they had played in the past.
Zeidan warned, however, that if the process of the municipal elections were delayed, he will be forced to take action to speed the process up.
He stated that there would be around 99 municipalities. It ought to have been nearer 50, he felt, but for the moment, the higher fgure would suffice.
With regards to the new National ID number, Zeidan eplained that it was very important. Over 80 percent of the population had already received their NID number, and he urged those who have not to quickly apply for one. It was a major help in preventing corruption, he added, pointing out many people had used multiple identities to milk the system. One person, he said, had managed to be in receipt of over 100 wages. [/restrict]
