Siniora: Expenditure issue cannot be settled subjectively, no party enjoys immunity

Future Movement parliamentary bloc leader MP Fouad Siniora called on the cabinet Saturday to stop wasting time and to rather finalize the 2012 budget within 2 months.   

During his reception of a Future Movement delegation in Sidon and the south, Siniora urged the cabinet to submit a draft law to the parliament to increase the expenditure ceiling for the year 2012; “final accounts for previous years will be prepared meanwhile,” he added.   

“The issue of public expenditure cannot be settled partially or subjectively given that, from 2006 until 2011, the problem was the same”, he said, adding that the same criteria should be adopted for all these years as he confirmed that no party enjoys immunity.   

Separately, during a lunch he hosted in the honor of EU Ambassador to Lebanon Angelina Eichhorst, Siniora stressed that the current government is not suitable to run this country amid the fateful change sweeping through the Arab world, adding that the cabinet is not even eligible to oversee the 2013 elections.    

Siniora added that statements put forth by members of the majority doubting the possibility of holding elections on time prove that the ruling coalition prefers postponing elections if wining majority is not guaranteed.