The country recently witnessed a wave of anger against corruption and the corrupt, and the ceiling of calls for accountability for all those involved in the theft and plundering of state resources and funds has increased, especially after the state watchdogs revealed corruption operations in ministries and government institutions.
Today, several Libyan cities, including the capital, Tripoli, went out in popular demonstrations under the name of the “23 August movement” to demand the fight against corruption that has permeated the state’s joints until it exhausted them.
In all the successive crises that the citizen suffers, they have not been resolved or any serious steps taken towards them by the Presidential Council, which always prefers to take the position of the silent spectator, issuing paper statements to remain in the drawers of the luxurious presidential offices.
Corruption in Telecom Holdings
The Administrative Control Authority revealed the existence of financial and administrative violations of the Telecommunications Holding Company represented in the disbursement of 91 million dinars to the company’s office in the Eastern Province without any data on its employees or specifying the aspects of spending, and without the presence of documents indicating the points of expendture or bank accounts for the region.
According to its annual report for the year 2019, reported by “the economic echo”, the monitoring authority indicated that the company’s management had established an office in the Emirates without evidence of its establishment decision and the proceeds of its expenses, and it disbursed a financial reward to the president of the Libyan Academy of Communications despite the absence of any activity since its establishment, and a financial reward was disbursed. To the Executive Committee in charge of supervising the Next Generation project despite the incomplete implementation of the second phase of the project.
Administrative wrong doings
The control authority stated that among the administrative abuses was the amendment of the memberships of the members of the boards of directors of the companies affiliated with the holding company, namely the “Libya Phone, International Communications and New Generation” companies, in violation of the provisions of Presidential Council Resolution No. 15 of 2018.
The Administrative Control Authority stated that the Holding Company’s management had established an office in the UAE under the name “Dubai Office”, without indicating the decision to establish the office and the proceeds of its expenses, under the pretext that the documents were in the possession of the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company.
embezzlement of millions
The Control Authority indicated that it noticed the delay in preparing the company’s overall budget, the failure to prepare an approved financial regulation, the failure to close the financial expenditure for previous years, as well as the lack of conformity with the bank accounts of the subsidiaries.
It added that there is ambiguity in the investments and financial returns of the company, the failure to settle the existing liabilities of the company amounting to 300 million dinars, and the failure to settle the outstanding cheques evident in the settlement memorandum at the Republic Bank and the “Postal Agency” with a value of approximately 849 million dinars.
Prior to the leaked report of the Administrative Control authority, the Central Bank issued a statement on the revenues and expenditures of the state sectors, in which it disclosed that the telecom revenues as of July 31 are equal to zero.
Corruption in the health section
On the 17th of August, the Military Prosecutor issued an order banning the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health, Muhammad al-Haytham, and a number of members of the Military Medicine from traveling while taking their passports, against the background of corruption and waste of public funds.
With the beginning of the outbreak of the Corona virus in the countries neighboring Libya, the President of the Presidency Council, Fayez Al-Sarraj, had announced the disbursement of a budget of half a billion dinars; To combat the pandemic in Libya.
On August 11, the Central Bank announced the value of the budget that was spent to combat the Corona pandemic, which amounted to 847 million dinars, including 95 million for the military medicine service.
On August 4, the Military prosecutor had ordered prosecutors to open an investigation into the reports received regarding suspicion of financial corruption in the Military Medicine Service of the Ministry of Defense.
In the same context, the head of the Auditing Bureau in Tripoli, Khaled Shakshak, prevented a number of officials of the Military Medicine Authority from carrying out their duties, in addition to seizing the bank accounts of five companies that had been disbursed with more money than their dues.
Corruption of the Undersecretary of the Ministry of health
Confirming the extent of rampant corruption in the Ministry of Health, an informed source in the Ministry of Health revealed to Arraed, last Thursday, that the Undersecretary of the Ministry, Mohamed Al-Haytham, had brought American-made rapid analyzers for a large amount, with free simple actuators, and when the triggers ran out, they called the American manufacturer, which responded That she cannot give them triggers; Because the company until now does not cover the needs of its country, confirming that the devices are located in the Ministry’s stores.
According to the source, and in a meeting between Badr al-Din al-Najjar and the Governor of the Central Bank of Libya, al-Siddiq al-Kabeer, in which he presented a number of the center’s needs, Al-Kabeer stated that the sums disbursed to the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health reached about one and a quarter billion dinars.
After all this corruption and waste of public money by the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health, Mohamed Al-Haytham, and the director of the Holding Company for Communications, Faisal Al-Qirqab, will the Presidency Council issue decisions of dismissal and accountability?
