Berri Accuses Banking Mafias of Obstructing Wage Scale Funding

Speaker Nabih Berri accused on Saturday what he described as “banking mafias” of obstructing funding for the long-stalled wage scale file.

“Banks mafias and maritime institutions have mobilized efforts in all directions in a bid to prevent funding for the wage scale,” Berri said in a statement released Saturday.

“What is happening is a hidden truth and an organized campaign against the parliament with aims to thwart the electoral law and the (parliamentary) elections. The proof to those attempts is that efforts were underway to reach an electoral law when suddenly the focus turned to the wage scale issue,” said the Speaker.

“Knowing that the wage scale is a rightful people's demand and it should have been approved ten years ago and incorporated in the budget, but banking mafias and maritime institutions have mobilized their efforts in all directions, just as in 2014, in a bid to obstruct its funding.

"I hereby address the entire Lebanese and political forces to assure that things will be back on track and the priorities will be first to devising a new electoral law, the appointment of a parliamentary investigative committee to unveil corruption and try the corrupt, approve the wage scale and finally approve the state's budget."