Change and Reform to Snap Back at Saniora over Spending ‘Scandal’
The Change and Reform bloc of MP Michel Aoun is preparing a detailed response to al-Mustaqbal bloc leader Fouad Saniora who stressed on Friday that the $11 billion extra-budgetary spending made between 2006 and 2009 had all the required documents and accounting of public finances.
Change and Reform bloc MP Ibrahim Kanaan told As Safir daily on Saturday that a press conference held by Saniora and other March 14 MPs a day earlier was “a dangerous scandal at the constitutional and parliamentary levels that cannot be covered by the media play organized by Saniora.”
The lawmaker reiterated his accusation that Saniora “is asking for a financial clearance through the media at a time when he has been asked in the past 5 years to make a clearance through an accurate accounting.”
The March 8 and 14 forces are at loggerheads over extra-budgetary spending made since 2006. The parliamentary majority is pushing for the adoption of a $5.9 billion bill on spending made by Premier Najib Miqati’s cabinet in 2011 while March 14 is calling for a comprehensive solution to all the spending made since 2006 given that Lebanon hasn’t had any state budget since 2005.
The sharp differences have threatened the fate of a parliamentary session scheduled to be held on Monday. Saniora and several other March 14 MPs said they will boycott the session if an urgent draft-law proposed by al-Mustaqbal lawmakers to legalize extra-budgetary spending since 2006 isn’t discussed alongside the cabinet’s $5.9 billion bill.
But sources close to the March 8 forces said the opposition’s invitation to boycott the session means it is seeking to obstruct the work of the parliament.
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