Mustaqbal Slams Attempt to Approve Law that Would Legalize Extra-Budgetary Spending

The Mustaqbal bloc rejected on Tuesday parliament’s attempt to issue a law to increase the roof of government spending for Prime Minister Najib Miqati’s cabinet.

It said in a statement after its weekly meeting: “Should such a law be approved, then it should apply to all governments, past and present.”

In addition, it defended the spending of governments under former Premier Fouad Saniora and Saad Hariri, saying that they adopted the same mechanism as the current government.

“The details of the spending are recorded at the Finance Ministry,” said the bloc after its weekly meeting headed by MP Samir al-Jisr.

In addition, the bloc defended the extra-budgetary spending of the Saniora and Hariri government’s, attributing them to the lack of a state budget at the time.

It noted that state budgets from 2006 until 2010 had been approved by the respective cabinets during those years, but they were not passed at parliament for various different reasons.

“The extra-budgetary spending of the Saniora and Hariri governments respected all legal and financial laws,” it stressed.

It therefore proposed that a state budget be approved in order to avert disputes over extra-budgetary spending.

The case of extra-budgetary spending has sparked a dispute between the March 8 and March 14-led opposition.

The March 14 MPs had walked out of a legislative session on Thursday in protest against parliament’s attempt to adopt a bill that would legalize extra-budgetary spending by Miqati’s government.

The opposition has conditioned its approval of the bill to a settlement of the $11 billion spent by the Saniora and Hariri between 2006 and 2009.