Suleiman Ready to Sign $5.9 Bill to End Financial Crisis

President Michel Suleiman reiterated his readiness to sign the $5.9 billion extra-budgetary spending in order to motivate the cabinet to approve the $3.12 billion draft that covers the expenses of the first half of 2012.

The president is optimistic that the financial crisis will end once the cabinet begins tackling the 2012 state budget, Suleiman’s visitors told An Nahar newspaper on Friday.

Finance Minister Mohammed al-Safadi finalized the 2012 state budget and is expected to refer it to the cabinet during the upcoming session.

Ministerial sources told al-Akhbar newspaper Friday that discussing the 2012 state budget might not be a solution to the financial crisis the cabinet is passing through.

“It will expose everything and would hold everyone accountable,” the sources said.

Suleiman has continuously expressed his refusal to sign a $5.9 billion extra-budgetary spending bill over constitutional violations as it includes irregularities that should be settled by the parliament through the adoption of the reservations expressed by the legislature’s spending and budget committee.

But Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun accused him of forcing the government to violate the constitution by spending illegally in an attempt to appease the March 14 opposition in its demands to find a comprehensive solution to the extra-budgetary spending made since 2005, the last time Lebanon had an official state budget.