Progress Made in Drafting Extra-Budgetary Spending Proposal

Premier Najib Miqati is making progress in the drafting of the plan aimed at finding a final solution to the extra-budgetary spending made by the governments of ex-PMs Fouad Saniora and Saad Hariri in 2006-2010, Economy Minister Nicolas Nahhas said.

In remarks to An Nahar daily published Tuesday, Nahhas said: “We are making progress and seeking to come up with a draft acceptable by everyone.”

He added there was a possibility for the draft-law to be finalized before a cabinet session set to be held at Baabda palace on Wednesday.

“We are on the right track but we can confront anything new at any moment,” Nahhas warned.

But An Nahar ruled out the possibility of discussing the draft-law during Wednesday’s session, which according to al-Liwaa could witness the appointment of few civil servants to posts in state institutions.

Meanwhile, deputy Speaker Farid Makari hailed the decision of Speaker Nabih Berri not to put a 2011 $5.9 billion spending bill on the agenda of the parliament without the draft-law of the $11 billion spent between 2006 and 2009 and the $5 billion spending made in 2010.

“I appreciate Speaker Berri’s remarks that he won’t put the $5.9 billion bill for discussion during the next legislative session because he is holding onto his promise that he would wait for the finalization of the (so-called) $11 billion draft law to propose them together,” Makari said.

If that’s the case, then March 14 opposition MPs would attend the parliamentary session on Thursday, he told An Nahar.

The March 14 opposition boycotted two sessions to object the adoption of the $5.9 billion bill without a final settlement to the extra-budgetary spending made in 2006-2010, prompting a government decision to task Miqati with drafting the plan.