By Abdullah Alkabir, political writer and commentator
The Great Treasure Chest
After definitely exceeding its clear powers enshrined in the Constitutional Declaration, by issuing unnecessary legislation and laws during the transitional period, such as creating a Constitutional Court to replace the Constitutional Chamber of the High Court, and issuing its own official Gazette, these are just a few examples. The House of Representatives (HoR) continues its subversive role in Libyan political life by establishing the Libya Development and Reconstruction Fund, and subordinating several entities to it, to operate under its supervision, such as the Cities Development Authority, and the Oil Crescent Development Authority, to record the maximum levels of absurdity, by legislating plunder and theft of public money. This fund is exempted by virtue of Article No. (8) from applying the provisions of the Administrative Contracts Regulations, as well as from the Administrative Control and Audit Bureau Laws.
Half of the powers of the executive authorities were granted to the Fund, as it assumes tasks assigned to the ministries of Planning and Finance, so that the need for these ministries will no longer exist after the creation of the Fund.
The legislator who enacted this law may not realize that his law will not be worth the ink with which it was written, and that the opportunity to translate it into reality is extremely impossible. Therefore, the only result that he will achieve after the issuance of the law, and its dissemination via social websites and media platforms, is the shame that will befall him, because he did not hesitate to belittle the trust he held, and he dared to permit the seizure of public money by law, and to protect the person assigned to head this fund from any oversight or accountability.
The emphasis on the impossibility of applying the law regarding the Fund, in particular its Article 8 exempting the fund from oversight and accountability, is not arbitrary or presumptuous, but rather based on the package of basic laws of the state, including the Law of the Audit Bureau and the Law of Administrative Control, which are the laws upon which the High Court relies when considering any laws. They are created by legislative bodies, and therefore any law that violates these basic laws will be invalidated by the court.
The day after the fund law was issued, the Office of the Presidency of the House of Representatives issued a decision naming Belkacem Haftar as director of the fund. This assignment reveals the reason for creating this fund with a legal text, and sparing it oversight and accountability. Over the past months, Belkacem Haftar has been seeking to oust Agila Saleh from the presidency of the House of Representatives.
The Egyptian regime has intervened at least once to preserve Agila Saleh and protect him from the encroachment of Haftar’s sons. It appears that Haftar’s son has not backed down from his goal, and he has wide influence in the HoR, through the loyalty of a large number of representatives to him, they are the ones who will carry out the coup by appointing a new speaker of the HoR. Therefore, Aqila decided to resolve this nightmare by offering this bribe to Haftar’s son, hoping to dissuade him from his efforts to overthrow him, and for the boy to be busy with his new toy, the great treasure chest, which is immune from oversight and accountability, in a bid to take his hands off the throne of the Presidency of Parliament.
