53 members of the High Council of State (HCS) denounced the provisional suspension of Oil and Gas Minister Mohammed Oun by the Administrative Control Authority without announcing the reasons to the public. The HCS members called for the immediate return of the Oil and Gas Minister to his office, saying that the suspension decision by the Administrative Control Authority must be withdrawn.
The HCS members said in a statement on Friday they had found the speed of appointing someone to run the Ministry of Oil and Gas as an replacement to Oun very strange, saying that such a speed would hint that the issue had been prepared and arranged in advance by the Prime Minister of the Government of National Unity, Abdul Hamid Dbeibah.
The Head of the Administrative Control Authority, Abdullah Gaderbou, issued last Monday a decision to suspend the Minister of Oil and Gas for “reasons of investigation into legal violations,” while on the following day Dbeibah appointed the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Oil and Gas, Khalifa Abdel Sadiq, as a temporary replacement to Oun.
The HCS members also said they believed that Oun’s dismissal was on purpose because of his opposition to suspicious oil contracts and agreements, rendering “the unprecedented collusion of oversight and control institutions with the government” as a perilous issue which could influence the role of those institutions and undermine their efforts in combating administrative and financial corruption.
