Spending Bill Back in the Limelight

Cabinet ministers engaged in a long debate on Tuesday over public spending amid a report that spending based on the 2005 budget was not enough in paying the salaries of civil servants.

A $5.9 billion 2011 spending bill hasn’t been approved by the parliament yet. But if approved, it would legalize spending by the government above 2005 levels.

Lebanon hasn’t had any official budget since that year.

An Nahar daily quoted ministerial sources as saying on Wednesday that “there would be no solution to this problem unless parliament approves the draft law referred to it by the cabinet and that allows it to spend $5.9 billion.”

“It seems that the government is facing the same problem that the previous cabinets of Fouad Saniora and Saad Hariri faced when the former opposition rejected the plan the same way the current opposition is opposing the $5.9 billion bill in parliament,” the sources said.

Parliament’s appropriations committee studied the bill last year and referred it to Speaker Nabih Berri. But during a legislative session in November, Saniora and other March 14 opposition MPs rejected it under the pretext that they needed time to study it.

Despite the long debate on Tuesday, the cabinet postponed discussion on the issue to an extraordinary session that would be held at Baabda palace on Monday. During the session, the ministers would also discuss the 2012 draft budget proposed by Finance Minister Mohammed Safadi.