In a statement, Representative George Atallah commented on the circular issued by the Banque du Liban calculating the salaries of judges on the basis of a dollar equivalent to 8000 Lebanese pounds, and the possibility that this circular also includes deputies, and said: A dollar basis equivalent to 8000 Lebanese pounds, in violation of the laws, especially the monetary and credit law, as this matter requires a law, not a circular or a request to the banks. It belongs to a specific category of public sector employees without the rest of the categories, so what do we say to the school professor, the professor of the Lebanese University, or to the commissioner of the Department of Souls and its employees, the financial mohseb and its employees, the employees of the courts and the military with all their bodies and ranks.”
He continued: “The decision of the ruler of the money referred to above calls for suspicion and doubt that in terms of timing or principle, and that in terms of targeting a group that the Lebanese depend on to try the ruler and investigate him in order to reveal the circumstances of the crime of the age, he issues a circular, the least said in which it bears the characteristics of bribery. In addition to the foregoing, some are circulating that this circular also includes deputies, although this is not true, but I renew my rejection of any discretion in correcting the salaries of a category of public sector employees without the rest, especially since this matter is taking place without any scientific basis.
He added: “Totally digress, and if the governor of money dares to issue a circular amending the method of calculating the pensions of MPs, I declare my refusal to receive my modified salary and I will not accept its amendment before correcting the salaries of all public sector employees.”
Atallah concluded: “I go back and call on all political forces, especially the Minister of Finance, to stay away from the political strife in the central governor’s file and to take the decision to change it so that it will be the first to discover the secrets of the cave in which the one who protects is protected.”
