Cabinet to ‘Legalize’ Overspending after Suleiman-Miqati-March 8 Deal

The cabinet will approve a draft-law to legalize the controversial extra-budgetary spending during its session on Thursday, President Michel Suleiman announced.

In remarks to As Safir daily on Wednesday, Suleiman said the government will resolve the dispute on the spending through legal ways and will not resort to a political settlement.

“Everyone knows that the general spending needs a state budget,” Suleiman said, adding “until the adoption of the 2012 budget, we will approve treasury loans for the urgent needs of the ministries and refer them to the parliament.”

“I don’t think any MP would obstruct the work of the government or the spending,” he told the newspaper, stressing that he would resort to signing decrees under his constitutional powers if the lawmakers put obstacles to the adoption of the spending laws.

Reacting to the positive development, Speaker Nabih Berri told As Safir that he had been calling for resolving the spending problem since the dispute emerged between cabinet members several months ago.

“The solution to the spending crisis emerged through an agreement with the president and the prime minister to launch a new dynamics in the cabinet,” he said.

Berri was referring to an agreement reached by March 8 ministers, Suleiman and PM Najib Miqati during separate talks Monday to revitalize the government’s work.

Energy Minister Jebran Bassil expressed optimism, telling As Safir that if all the parties implement the agreement reached between them, then the cabinet could within a month or two make up for what it failed to achieve in one year and what previous governments failed to do in several years.

An Nahar daily said that besides state spending, the deal includes the adoption of measures to make appointments of civil servants, the adoption of several draft laws, including the electoral and budget laws, taking measures to maintain security and approving several development projects, among them the allocation of funds to the northern city of Tripoli.

Ministers Ali Hassan Khalil, Mohammed Fneish, Mohammed Safadi and Bassil held a meeting under Miqati at the Grand Serail on Wednesday to put the final touches on the agreement reached among them.

They stressed the need to implement the deal to activate the government’s work.