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By Libya Herald reporters.
Tripoli, 16 October 2015:
Tripoli-based Libyan Central Bank governor Saddek Elkaber has fired a top official who has been . . .[restrict]critical of the bank’s management.
A source at the bank this evening confirmed that Musbah Alkari, head of the CBL’s reserve department has been ousted. It is unclear why Elkaber made the move and it has not been possible to contact Alkari himself.
It is however likely that his past criticism of the bank’s management and his pressure for greater transparency at both the CBL and the Libyan Investment Authority may lie behind his departure.
As Libya’s oil income has plunged and the availability of foreign currency diminished, the management of the country’s reserves has become crucially important.
In April 2014 Alkari told the Libya Herald that, even if the country stopped pumping oil entirely, it had sufficient financial resources for another three years, even without turning to the international markets to borrow.
There was plenty of money, said Alkari, who is also chairman of Goumhouriya Bank. “Libya’s problem is not money”, he said, “it is transparency. That is the real challenge”. [/restrict]
