The Head of the High Council of State (HCS), Mohammed Takala, asked the Speaker of the House of Representatives (HoR), Aqila Saleh, to refer the draft state budget law for the year 2024 to the HCS, to study it and provide him with an opinion about it, stressing that the HC will reject it if it is approved without consultation.
This came in a letter Takala addressed to Saleh regarding the state’s general budget law for the year 2024, and it was published by the media office of the HCS on its Facebook page on Tuesday. It coincided with the holding of an official session of the House of Representatives in the city of Benghazi, headed by Saleh, to discuss and issue a set of laws, including the state’s general budget law for 2024.
“You are more aware than others of his obligation to the authorities operating in the state, primarily the House of Representatives, not to discuss or issue any laws except after presenting them to the HCS, to express an opinion.” Takala said, reminding Saleh of the Libyan Political Agreement of 2015.
He justified his request by “considering the nature of the stage that the country is going through, and the requirements of making consensus on all issues related to the management of public affairs, especially those that are reflected in the living conditions of the citizens and affect their daily livelihoods.”
At the conclusion of his speech to Saleh, Takala warned that his failure to respond to his letter would force the HCS “to reject and object to any results resulting from the aforementioned budget law, not to mention that the budget would be subject to appeal through legal procedures.”
These developments came after the Governor of the Central Bank of Libya, Al-Siddiq Al-Kabir, and Saleh, discussed on Saturday the steps to adopt the unified budget for 2024 in a meeting held in Cairo in the presence of the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank, Marie Miftah Raheel.
