Abdulhamid Dbeibah, the Prime Minister of the Government of National Unity (GNU), has raised concerns over the spending of the parallel government, designated by the House of Representatives (HoR), which has exceeded more than 15 billion dinars.
During the Cabinet meeting in Gharyan, Dbeibah stated that the parallel government spending encouraged money laundering and smuggling operations. He added that their spending took money from depositors in commercial banks, and caused an increase in demand for purchasing hard currency in the black market. Dbeibah further added that parallel spending was not subject to the High Finance Committee, the Audit Bureau, or the Administrative Control Authority. He stressed his government’s commitment to the monetary policies of the Central Bank of Libya to preserve the value of the Libyan dinar.
In a related development, the Minister of Economy, Muhammad Al-Hawaij, announced that the local public debt had risen to 200 billion dinars due to parallel government spending. Al-Hawaij pointed out in the meeting that parallel spending contributed to chaos and confusion within the country’s hard currency market.
