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By Sami Zaptia.
Tripoli, 14 November 2013:
At Sunday’s press conference, Prime Minister Ali Zeidan defended his government against accusations . . .[restrict]of overspending or misspending public money. He also confirmed that Libya will have a budgetary deficit in 2013.
“Accusations that we overspent or that we misspent public money are untrue”, he said in reply to media accusations.
Zeidan also refuted claims that his government had inherited a windfall of money unspent by the Al-Kib government.
“Any money left over from the previous government is returned to the state coffers. There was talk in the media that we were handed over the unspent parts of the previous budget. We received no money from the previous Al-Kib government. All that we have spent has been released only through the GNC. All our spending is approved by the GNC”, the PM emphasized.
“As a result of the oil blockades, we may find ourselves with a budgetary deficit this year, Zeidan said, confirming the forecast made by the IMF as early as October. The PM further added that “60 percent of oil production had been stopped”, without revealing the exact number of barrels currently being produced per day.
Moreover, probably in part signaling to the general public and the armed militias, Zeidan warned that “in one or two months we may no longer be able to pay wages. “
Reiterating his point that the general public should proactively help the government in solving the oil blockade crises, Zeidan said that he expected “people to peacefully go to the oilfields and get the demonstrators out”.
“There can be no wages, no travel abroad for healthcare etc” oil exports are not resumed, he explained. “You should understand the size of this crises”, he emphasized.
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