A boycott by March 14 MPs and lawmakers from MP Walid Jumblat’s National Struggle Front of a crucial parliamentary session on Monday is likely to lead to an open-ended crisis on extra-budgetary spending made in the past six years.

Speaker Nabih Berri’s office announced the adjournment of the session to March 15 over lack of quorum.

Minister of Transportation and Public Works, Ghazi al-Aridi, of the National Struggle Front stated that the bloc is counting on various political contacts in order to resolve the dispute over government spending ahead of Monday’s parliament session, reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday.

He told the daily however: “We will not attend the session if a settlement is not reached.”

Speaker Nabih Berri has snapped back at the March 14 coalition that urged him to find a comprehensive solution to the controversial extra-budgetary spending, saying the opposition should instead approve his proposal to form a joint ministerial-parliamentary committee to resolve the dispute with the March 8 forces.

In remarks published in several newspapers on Saturday, Berri said: “I improved the conditions of the success of my proposal so that it gets implemented.”

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.”

Change and Reform bloc MP Ibrahim Kanaan reiterated on Friday his rejection of attempts made by the opposition March 14 forces and mainly al-Mustaqbal movement to find a comprehensive solution to extra-budgetary spending made by previous governments since 2006.

Al-Mustaqbal bloc lawmakers Jamal al-Jarrah and Ghazi Youssef proposed an urgent draft-law to parliament to legitimize the extra-budgetary spending made by the cabinets of ex-PMs Fouad Saniora and Saad Hariri between 2006 and 2010 and the government of Premier Najib Miqati in 2011 after the current cabinet referred its $5.9 billion bill to the legislature for approval.

The March 14 opposition forces threw the ball of the dispute on the extra-budgetary spending in Speaker Nabih Berri’s court on Friday, saying he should resolve their differences with the March 8 coalition to avert a clash during a parliamentary session scheduled to be held on Monday.

During a press conference he held on Friday, al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc leader MP Fouad Saniora reiterated that an urgent draft-law proposed by MPs Jamal al-Jarrah and Ghazi Youssef is the only solution to resolve the dispute on the extra-budgetary spending made by different governments since 2006.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea stated on Thursday that the March 14 press conference scheduled for Friday will serve as the “final warning” for the March 8 camp to “cease its spiteful acts.”

He told the Central News Agency: “Strife may erupt if the dispute between the March 8 and 14 camps over government spending is not resolved.”

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc is gearing up to propose an urgent draft law that would call for a comprehensive settlement to the billions of dollars of extra-budgetary spending made since 2006, al-Liwaa daily reported Wednesday.

It said the opposition bloc that is part of the March 14 coalition will propose the draft law in an effort to ward off attempts by the March 8 parliamentary majority of clinching a vote on a $5.9 billion bill on spending made by Premier Najib Miqati’s cabinet in 2011.

Speaker Nabih Berri stressed Tuesday that a controversial extra-budgetary spending would be resolved through the adoption of a $5.9 billion spending bill first to pave way for a solution to $11 billion spent between 2006 and 2009.

In remarks to As Safir daily, Berri said that parliament should “first legalize the $5.9 billion, which the opposition March 14 forces had initially agreed to, so that the $11 billion problem could be resolved.”

A meeting chaired by Speaker Nabih Berri of parliament’s bureau and heads and rapporteurs of parliamentary committees on Monday will test his ability to resolve the dispute between the March 8 and 14 forces on extra-budgetary spending.

A parliamentary source told al-Liwaa daily that discussions will focus on the agenda of the March 5 parliamentary session and the possibility to launch the work of a joint legislative-ministerial committee to resolve the controversial spending.