2023-06-19 11:37:16
The Lebanese Parliament approves the opening of appropriations for public sector salaries, and Mikati confirms the readiness of the budget
The Lebanese Parliament approved the item related to opening credits for public sector salaries and transportation allowances, in addition to the law that aims to cover giving financial incentives and transportation allowances to Lebanese University professors.
Today, Monday morning, a legislative session was held devoted to approving the aforementioned item, after the Ministry of Finance announced that it would not be able to pay the salaries, compensations and wages of public sector workers due at the end of the current month of June, due to the lack of securing financial funds, which will prevent the ability to transfer these rights. To its owners, calling on Parliament to convene to resolve the crisis.
Today, the session took place in the wake of a political dispute over the constitutionality of the parliament’s meeting and its approval of legislation, in light of the vacancy in the first presidency, which prompted some parliamentary blocs to boycott it, while the most prominent of those present was considered the “Free Patriotic Movement” (headed by Representative Gebran Bassil), although it He is considered one of the firm adherents of the principle of limiting the role of Parliament to electing the President of the Republic.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri started the session, which was attended by caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, by saying: “There are people who see (there are those who see) the constitution that the government does not convene and that no parliament works and legislates, and therefore if we want to respond to these people, we will work.”
In the context, Deputy Speaker of Parliament Elias Bou Saab affirmed that “today’s legislative session is not a message to anyone, but rather to secure the salaries of public sector employees with a single item,” noting that “President Berri takes into account the legislation of necessity while the government does not take into account anything.”
Budget readiness
For his part, Prime Minister Najib Mikati announced during the session that “the 2023 budget is ready, and we will call for successive government sessions to approve it,” noting that “the Ministry of Finance will send the final draft of the budget to the government before the end of June to start discussing it.”
Mikati also said, in the face of objections to the cabinet convening and a loose agenda in light of the presidential vacancy, that “the government plays its role in managing the affairs of the state and citizens, and there is nothing personal that is passed.”
The session was boycotted today by the “opposition” forces, especially the “Lebanese Forces” bloc (headed by Samir Geagea), the “Lebanese Phalange” (headed by Representative Sami Gemayel), and independent blocs, along with representatives of the Changeists (representing the October 17 uprising). For refusing to hold legislative sessions before electing a President of the Republic.
The opposition forces said, in a statement, that “their position stems from a principled and constitutional standpoint, to protect the rights of the Lebanese in general and public sector employees in particular. It is an exclusively elective body until the election of the president.
She added, “The session is also unconstitutional because additional appropriations cannot be passed, in the absence of the 2023 budget, which was not prepared by the government, which lacks parliamentary and popular confidence, and which did not provide any solutions to all the crises we suffer from.”
And she added, “What is presented today takes us back to the same logic that began with the approval of the ill-considered series of ranks and salaries that accelerated the collapse, passing through the recent random, unfunded increases in public sector salaries and wages, which led to inflation, as a result of which the purchasing value of these salaries decreased to less than half.” .
And she considered that “this approach, which lacks seriousness and lacks a comprehensive vision and plan, cannot address the problems, especially in the absence of actual financing sources for these credits. Rather, it will lead to new inflation that reduces the value of the increase.”
And after the parliament’s inability, in session No. 12, held last Wednesday, to elect a president of the republic, the boycotters called on the deputies to convene immediately under the dome of parliament, in an open electoral session in successive sessions, until reaching the election of a reformist president whose decision is free and committed to preserving Lebanon’s sovereignty. And he begins to reconfigure the authority, in order to launch the rescue operation, and to address all the consequences of the crisis in a studied, scientific and available manner, especially the salaries of public sector employees.
For its part, the “Free Patriotic Movement” justified its presence today by limiting its participation in the legislation of necessary issues related to the supreme interest of the state or force majeure, provided that this interpretation is not expanded, while affirming that it will not participate in any future legislation that does not apply to the status of emergency and necessity. .
On a related level, the Chairman of the Finance and Budget Committee, Representative Ibrahim Kanaan (belongs to the current), confirmed that “the only ceiling that brought us to the session and approval of the accreditation is the rights of 400,000 families of soldiers, employees and teachers who were placed under the crisis under the ground, and the state is dependent on these, so is Is it permissible for us, through our constitutional and political differences, to pay the price for the people? These files must be withdrawn from the political tension.”
He added, “The 2023 budget was supposed to reach us in September 2022 and be discussed by the parliament and approved constitutionally before the end of last year, as the budget is supposed to have been prepared and discussed at least in the government, which has not happened until today. And this was my question to the prime minister.” During the session, who said it has not been referred to the government yet.
Kanaan said, “The parliament must elect a president, and it only goes to the very necessary legislation, and the government is not supposed to come to us every day with a decision and project without knowing the actual numbers, hence the need for a budget.”
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