Mustaqbal: Uproar over Extra-Budgetary Spending Aims to Demonize Previous Era

The Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Tuesday stressed that “transparency governs the work of the Mustaqbal Movement, its parliamentary bloc and the March 14 coalition,” noting that the Saniora and Hariri governments had to resort to extra-budgetary spending between 2006-2011 after “five state budgets referred by the governments of Fouad Saniora and Saad Hariri to parliament were not approved.”

“Some people’s insistence on stirring an uproar is aimed at distorting the facts and demonizing a previous era in Lebanon’s history,” the bloc said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting.

“All the four governments of Lebanon, from 2006 until today, were forced to resort to extra-budgetary spending according to the mechanisms, standards and regulations stipulated by the Public Audit Act,” the bloc added.

It pointed out that all the records of that spending were “registered in the archives of the finance ministry and all the ministries and state institutes concerned,” adding that “all political parties were represented in those governments and partners in spending that money on providing the needs of the country and its citizens and running the state’s facilities.”

The Mustaqbal bloc said that some parties were trying to justify the current government’s extra-budgetary spending while denying the previous governments that privilege, slamming “the rejected discrimination that is aimed at achieving spiteful political ends that will only contribute to deepening the rift and disagreements in the country and disrupting the work of state institutes.”

The bloc reiterated its call for “legitimizing the Lebanese state’s auditing from the moment the (1989) Taef Accord was endorsed until today, by referring a draft law to the relevant (parliamentary) committees in order for it to be discussed and endorsed, thus putting an end to the cheap and void overbidding practiced by the other camp.”

Finance Minister Mohammed Safadi was on Monday tasked with preparing a draft-law on the extra-budgetary spending made by the governments of Saniora and Hariri between 2006-2010, drawing the ire of the March 14 opposition which is demanding a comprehensive solution that would also include the adoption of a $5.9 billion 2011 spending bill.

After a meeting held at the parliament by Speaker Nabih Berri, PM Najib Miqati, and MPs Michel Aoun, Suleiman Franjieh, Mohammed Raad and Talal Arslan, Safadi was asked to prepare the draft-law for approval by the cabinet, which will later refer it to parliament.

But the March 14 forces, which on Monday boycotted a parliamentary session that was set to discuss among other things the $5.9 billion bill of Miqati’s government, reiterated that they would reject any solution that does not legalize all the spending made since 2006.

The major point of contention between the March 8 and 14 alliances is the $11 billion spent by the Saniora and Hariri governments between 2006 and 2009, which the Change and Reform bloc of Aoun claims was riddled with corruption.

But in a new development, As Safir daily on Tuesday quoted Safadi as saying that financial violations were committed in those years and the spending was in reality more than $16 billion.

This in addition to a $5 billion extra-budgetary spending made by the national unity cabinet of Hariri in 2010.

The finance minister told the newspaper that he would refer the draft-law to the general-secretariat of the government on Tuesday.

This would lead to a full and not a partial settlement of the spending between 2006 and 2010, he said, stressing “we don’t want to complicate the issue. On the contrary, we are seeking to find a way out” of the crisis.

But several March 14 lawmakers, criticized the process with al-Mustaqbal bloc MP Ghazi Youssef telling An Nahar newspaper that the opposition will continue to boycott the parliament until it agrees on a single proposal that would legalize all the spending.

Youssef told Voice of Lebanon (100.5) that the opposition doesn’t mind for the cabinet to propose a draft law on the spending on condition that it is linked to the $5.9 billion bill.

Al-Liwaa daily also quoted al-Mustaqbal lawmaker Jamal al-Jarrah as expressing the same point of view.

Youssef and al-Jarrah have proposed a draft-law to counter the $5.9 billion bill but Berri did not put it on the agenda of Monday’s session, which later collapsed due to lack of quorum.

Change and Reform bloc MP Ibrahim Kanaan noted on Tuesday that the problem on government spending does not lie in the spending itself, but in the fact that parliament is being undermined.

He also reiterated his bloc’s demand that Saniora present the government’s accounting records from 2006 until 2010.

He added during a press conference that the governments of former Prime Ministers Saniora and Saad Hariri presented draft laws on the state budget after the constitutional deadline.

Furthermore, he remarked that the 2005 state budget was submitted a year and a month after the constitutional deadline.

“The delay in presenting a state budget allowed them to spend funds and later request parliament to approve this spending,” Kanaan explained.

In addition, the MP slammed the March 14 camp’s claims that the delay in the approval of a state budget under the Saniora and Hariri governments is attributed to the closure of parliament between December 2006 and May 2008 over disputes between the March 8 and 14 forces.

“The problem lies in the fact that they have refused to acknowledge the presence of a mechanism that stipulates how funds should be spent,” declared the Change and Reform MP.