Miqati Intensifies Efforts to Avoid Cabinet Clash on Spending Bill
Premier Najib Miqati is scrambling to avoid a showdown between President Michel Suleiman and March 8 ministers during Wednesday’s cabinet session that is set to discuss the controversial $5.9 billion extra-budgetary spending.
Miqati held separate talks with President Michel Suleiman, Speaker Nabih Berri and Finance Minister Mohammed Safadi on Monday in an effort to find a way out of the spending crisis that erupted after the March 8 ministers pressured the head of state to sign the $5.9 billion bill.
An Nahar daily said Tuesday that Suleiman reiterated that he rejects to sign the bill for including legal violations that he says should be settled by the cabinet and later by the parliament.
Hizbullah, Amal and Free Patriotic Movement ministers in their turn insisted that the solution to the crisis lies in Suleiman’s signature of the bill under article 58 of the constitution that allows the head of state to approve a bill deemed urgent by the government after the failure of the legislature to approve it.
March 8 ministerial sources said another option would be parliament’s discussion of the bill which was re-drafted by Safadi taking into consideration the remarks made by the legislature’s finance and budget committee.
“There is no need to return it back to the cabinet,” they stressed.
Sources close to Berri, who is the leader of the Amal movement, also stressed that the legalization of the spending should be made either through parliament’s approval or the issuing of a decree which the president is refusing.
The parliament has previously failed to give the green light to the extra-budgetary spending of Miqati’s government over differences between the March 8 majority and the March 14 opposition.
An Nahar quoted sources close to Miqati as saying that the cabinet session won’t be postponed and several solutions are being examined by all the parties.
Another item on the agenda is a draft-law that gives the finance ministry a $3.12 billion loan to cover some expenses of state institutions in 2012, including the salaries for public sector employees.
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