Sovereign fund or urgent reforms? Deputy PM Al Shami raises questions

The office of the Deputy Prime Minister of the caretaker government, Saadeh Al Shami, issued a statement in which he saw that the circulated reasons for the delay in studying reformist legislative projects sent from the government to the Parliament are a form of shifting responsibilities, even though he did not exempt some government entities from part of the responsibility.

He pointed out that insisting on having accurate figures verified by auditing companies before beginning the study of the laws takes us back to when the agreement with the [International Monetary] Fund stumbled due to disagreements over the numbers. 

He said, "Auditing the banks' accounts, which is what we are currently working on after securing a portion of the financing, will not be accomplished overnight but may take about a year. Do we have the luxury to wait all this time?"

He considered that the Finance and Budget Committee could have started studying the foundations and principles on which the legislative projects were based before the audited numbers from auditing companies were available. 

Nevertheless, the Central Bank of Lebanon and the Banking Control Commission of Lebanon (BCCL) sent the numbers requested by the Finance and Budget Committee. Based on them, Caretaker Prime Minister's advisor, Samir Al Daher, presented a study with a detailed methodology for addressing bank deposits and obligations within the framework of the proposed law for the rebalancing of the banking sector, on March 15th. 

However, neither the Finance and Budget Committee nor its subordinate subcommittee have convened since then.

Al Shami speculated that this might be due to the committee's focus on completing the study of the Sovereign Fund Law, knowing that any oil and gas resources will not come before a few years.

He emphasized that it is not comprehensible how priorities are determined when discussing legislative projects. How can priority be given to studying this law when we do not yet know, on the level of gas and oil, the quantities that can be commercially exploited? And why wasn't the approval of this law contingent on understanding the existing quantities, even though it specified specific percentages for foreign investment without the need for certified figures and without taking into account the needs of the present generations and the budgetary needs in the coming years?

He said, "But if the laws presented by the government, which are reformative laws, are part of the recovery plan like 'fish in the sea,' how should we describe giving the Sovereign Fund Law this priority? Is it selling the fish before catching it!"