ANSD : Hariri urges parties to defend budget

FRI 26 - 4 - 2024

Date: Jun 19, 2019
Source: The Daily Star

Hariri urges parties to defend budget

_{Timour Azhari| The Daily Star}
BEIRUT: Prime Minister Saad Hariri Tuesday called on the parties in the government to close ranks in defense of austerity measures included in the draft 2019 budget as it faces scrutiny from lawmakers.

“We held 19 Cabinet meetings to agree on the draft budget. These meetings were not for entertainment, but for a deep and detailed discussion of every item, idea and proposal,” Hariri said at the outset of a Cabinet session held Tuesday.

“This is why I consider that [it is] the responsibility of each of us in the government - and our ministerial solidarity [imposes] on us all - to defend in Parliament the decisions that we have made together.”

The premier noted that he did not mean that Parliament should not discuss the budget, but that he wanted this discussion to reflect “responsibility and solidarity, and not contradict ourselves.”

The distribution of the seats in Cabinet - as a “national unity government” - reflects the political forces elected to Parliament. This situation has been criticized for hampering Parliament’s oversight role, as MPs oversee ministers appointed to parties they belong to.

Parliament’s Finance and Budget Committee has voted to remove or revisit several articles of the draft budget in just over a week, during sessions it has been holding with the aim of endorsing it as soon as possible.

Hariri insisted during Tuesday’s session that the draft budget - already more than six months late - be approved by July. Finance and Budget Committee chair MP Ibrahim Kanaan has said his committee aims to complete its study by mid-July.

The premier also noted “economic and financial developments in the country” in the past few weeks that he said had drawn “serious concern from the markets and investors at home and abroad.”

Moody’s Investor Service earlier this year downgrading the country’s long-term investment rating, and officials have warned that the country will face economic and financial collapse unless serious reforms are introduced.

Hariri said the government needed to accelerate the pace of its decision-making “to indicate our seriousness and credibility in addressing this concern and the economic and financial situation.”“I say clearly: We cannot continue at the same pace. We are all in the same boat, and we are all responsible for the safety of this boat called Lebanon,” Hariri said.

Tuesday’s Cabinet session was the first held in three weeks, following Eid al-Fitr and a surge in political tensions between Hariri’s Future Movement and the Free Patriotic Movement.

Those tensions were cooled in an ice-breaking meeting Monday between Hariri and FPM leader Gebran Bassil, during which both sides agreed on the need to reactivate government work.

Still, Cabinet is not set to convene Thursday, as had been proposed.

This means that this week Cabinet will not address the thorny issue of administrative appointments, which continues to stoke animosity among various parties in government, including the FPM and the Lebanese Forces.

LF leader Samir Geagea called for administrative appointments to be made via a clear mechanism, rather than through political horse trading.

His comments came after a meeting with Hariri at the prime minister’s Downtown Beirut residence that he said had focused on the economic situation in the country. Geagea pledged that the LF would coordinate its positions on the budget with Hariri’s Future Movement “to the fullest extent.”

Of its 100-item agenda Tuesday, Cabinet discussed 40 provisions that included items related to ministerial travels and grants.

Hariri asked Economy Minister Mansour Bteich to reexamine a protectionist 2 percent tax increase on all imported goods except medications and eco-friendly vehicles that had drawn criticism from traders and Hezbollah.

Cabinet also agreed that no municipality could award contracts without tenders as of Jan. 1 of next year. There has been widespread criticism of contracts awarded by mutual consent among municipal councils over alleged corruption, as they are often given to companies connected to prominent politicians, their families or their close business associates.

Hariri insisted on the endorsement in July of the Lebanon Economic Vision report drafted by consulting firm McKinsey last year. He also called for the rapid approval of Capital Investment Program tied to the CEDRE conference held more than a year ago, during which the international community pledged some $11 billion in soft loans for infrastructure projects.

Cabinet agreed on Lebanon’s participation in the Dubai 2020 Expo, and allocated $5 million for the event.

Cabinet also agreed that the 2020 budget would not include any spending increases, and would seek to further reduce spending. The ministers have said that the measures included in this year’s draft budget would reduce the budget deficit to 7.6 percent of gross domestic product, down from an estimated 11.5 percent last year. It is unclear how items struck down by Parliament would affect that figure, though Kanaan said all articles removed would be replaced with others to balance out the numbers.

Pushing on with its study of the budget Tuesday morning, the Finance and Budget Committee approved Article 70, which allows the state to pay debts it owes the National Social Security Fund in installments.

Kanaan said the MPs would begin discussing budget allocations for ministries and other public administrations Wednesday or Thursday, and would hold a special session to address budget articles that the committee has postponed discussion on. The committee’s evening session was adjourned pending consultations between Defense Minister Elias Bou Saab and Hariri on articles related to the military.

Meanwhile, Speaker Nabih Berri scheduled a legislative session for Wednesday of next week with an agenda that includes an emergency spending provision known as the “provisional twelfth,” which allows the state to spend money in the absence of an official budget. The measure is supposed to be used for only one month, January, but was controversially extended until the end of May earlier this year, based on an agreement between Berri and Hariri that the budget would be done by then.

But Cabinet missed that deadline. The Finance and Budget Committee earlier this month voted to extend the measure through mid-July, but Parliament must ratify it before it becomes law.

Next week’s legislative session will address nine items in addition to a number of draft laws put forward by MPs with an “urgent” designation.

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