$5.9 Billion Withdrawn from Cabinet Agenda Pending Political Settlement

A $5.9 billion extra-budgetary spending bill was pulled out of the agenda of a cabinet session set to be held on Wednesday pending a consensus between the different parties that make up the government of Premier Najib Miqati.

An Nahar daily said Sunday that copies of the seven-item agenda was distributed to the cabinet ministers without including in it the controversial bill that is set to legalize the government’s spending for 2011.

But a $3.12 billion bill to allocate funds to state institutions this year, including the payment of salaries of civil servants, is on the agenda in what ministerial sources saw as a serious attempt to find a solution to the spending.

The remaining items are also linked to the allocation of funds, including to the Rafik Hariri state hospital.

The withdrawal of the $5.9 billion bill is a sign that Miqati is exerting efforts to resolve the dispute between President Michel Suleiman on one side and the ministers of the March 8 forces – Hizbullah, Amal and the Free Patriotic Movement - who were given an ultimatum by the prime minister to resolve their differences before Wednesday’s session.

Miqati is exerting strong efforts to resolve the issue by holding consultations with the involved parties throughout the weekend.

The sources said the solution would come in the form of a political settlement backed by legal norms that would help the government come out of its crisis.

The funding crisis erupted after the March 8 ministers pressured Suleiman into signing the bill under article 58 of the constitution which allows him to issue a bill deemed urgent by the government after the failure of the legislature to approve it.

But the president stressed that the bill includes irregularities that should be resolved by parliament and the cabinet.

March 8 is worried that if the bill goes back to parliament, the March 14 opposition coalition would again call for finding a comprehensive solution to the spending made by previous governments since the last official state budget was adopted in 2005.