Al-Mustaqbal to Propose Draft Law for Comprehensive Settlement on Extra-Budgetary Spending
Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc is gearing up to propose an urgent draft law that would call for a comprehensive settlement to the billions of dollars of extra-budgetary spending made since 2006, al-Liwaa daily reported Wednesday.
It said the opposition bloc that is part of the March 14 coalition will propose the draft law in an effort to ward off attempts by the March 8 parliamentary majority of clinching a vote on a $5.9 billion bill on spending made by Premier Najib Miqati’s cabinet in 2011.
Al-Mustaqbal will ask Speaker Nabih Berri to put the draft-law on the agenda of a parliamentary session scheduled to be held on Monday, the newspaper added.
The bloc’s sources told An Nahar daily that the spending made by the governments of ex-PMs Fouad Saniora and Saad Hariri was based on the same principles of the $5.9 billion spending of Miqati’s cabinet.
The sources slammed Change and Reform bloc leader MP Michel Aoun who announced that parliament would only vote on the $5.9 billion bill rather than finding a comprehensive solution to the $11 billion spent by the Saniora and Hariri governments between 2006 and 2009 and a $5 billion spending made by the national unity cabinet of Hariri in 2010.
They accused Aoun of seeking to push the country towards a new crisis.
But Change and Reform bloc MP Ibrahim Kanaan told An Nahar that Aoun’s call for voting on the $5.9 billion bill is not aimed at provoking the March 14 forces, including al-Mustaqbal.
Parliament can’t discuss any budget or spending made by the previous governments because the finance ministry and the cabinet haven’t proposed any bill for adoption by the legislature, he stressed.
Despite hints by Aoun that parliament would resort to voting, National Struggle Front leader MP Walid Jumblat said he prefers a solution to be reached in the dispute between the March 8 and 14 MPs ahead of Monday’s session.
“I support finding a solution or a quick way out (of the crisis) and I hope that we don’t resort to the option of voting,” he told An Nahar.
Jumblat also stressed his support to a proposal made by Berri to adopt the $5.9 billion bill by parliament through March 14 support and later on find a way to legalize the $11 billion spent between 2006 and 2009 and the $5 billion extra-budgetary spending of 2010.
As for Miqati’s sources, they told An Nahar that the PM supports any solution proposed by Berri.
The speaker presided a joint meeting of parliamentary committees on Wednesday to discuss a series of draft laws.
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