After the meeting, Information Minister, Abbas Halaby,
read the Cabinet statement:
“The Cabinet convened today in a session headed by
President of the republic, General Michel Aoun, and attended by Prime Minister,
Najib Mikati, in addition to ministers except the Justice Minister who is on an
official visit to Iraq.
At the beginning, the President welcomed the ministers
after a long interruption during which the work of the executive authority,
represented by the Council of Ministers, froze “Although ministers continued
their work individually or through ministerial committees”.
The President indicated that “Cabinet-session interruption
negatively affected the regularity of the work of the executive authority and
increased the accumulation of negative repercussions of the general situation”.
“I have previously emphasized respect for the
principle of separation of authorities in Lebanon between the executive,
legislative and judicial authorities. What had happened in the past months wasn’t
in accordance with this constitutional rule, which was reflected in many of the
essential life demands of citizens. In this regard, I would like to assert that
when the government is not resigned, the President of the Republic and the
Prime Minister cannot issue exceptional approvals” the President added.
Moreover, the President asked to start studying
livelihood issues which concern citizens, provided that agenda topics will be
studied later.
Then, the Prime Minister said “I am pleased to resume
Cabinet sessions after a break, and that the “Together to rescue” government
resumes duties seriously and effectively since present and imminent challenges
no longer allow any delay, financially, socially and economically”.
“The remaining time before parliamentary elections has
become very stressful. We will try as much as possible to accomplish basic
issues which are first related to the daily life of citizens, electricity, general
budget and gas and oil” PM Mikati continued.
“My hope is that our sessions will be fruitful and
that we cooperate in a spirit of responsibility away from differences. I also
hope that we proceed from the fact that people no longer bear the
contradictions and are bored with the differences and want productive work and
cooperation among all to extricate themselves from crises and dangers” PM
Mikati added.
“What I ask for is that the views of ministers carry
the spirit of optimism through the media in approaching all files, despite their
difficulty. I ask to avoid, as much as possible, differences which harm
ministerial solidarity, and to maintain the confidentiality of deliberations,
because any partial or false or out of context leakage will distance the
discussion in the general budget and its figures from its correct scientific
approach” the Prime Minister said.
“There are also several topics on the agenda which are
essential for running state affairs and giving the rights of people and
employees. Upcoming sessions will be full of issues and basic files for all
ministries and departments. We are also in the process of preparing for a
special Cabinet session to approve the executive decrees of the issued laws. Through
constructive cooperation, we can achieve a lot. This is at the heart of our
work and direction” PM Mikati concluded.
Afterwards, the Council of Ministers began studying agenda
topics, and decided to approve:
- A draft decree aimed at giving temporary social
assistance to workers in the public sector (including government hospitals and
the Lebanese University), municipalities, the Federation of Municipalities and
anyone who receives a salary, wage, or allowances from public funds, in
addition to retirees who benefit from a retirement pension, and to give the
Ministry of Finance a treasury advance for this aim.
- A draft decree aiming to amend the value of the
daily transportation allowance for the private sector in the amount of 65,000
Lebanese Liras for each day of actual attendance, plus an education grant.
- A draft decree aiming to amend the value of the
temporary transportation compensation for public sector workers to reach 64,000
Lebanese Liras for each day of actual attendance.
- A draft decree aiming to give a monthly lump sum
transfer compensation of one million and 200 thousand Liras to the military in
the army, internal security forces, public security, state security, customs
officers and parliament police.
-Extension of work in the temporary staff and the
effect of decisions and contracts of temporary employees and contractors of
various names.
-Adjusting the teaching wages for those contracting to
teach in public schools and secondary schools, and vocational and technical
education institutes.
- Appointing the National Anti-Corruption Commission
according to the following: Judge Claude Karam as President, Lawyer Mr. Fawaz
Kabbara as Vice President, Judge Therese Allawi and Messrs’ Ali Badran, Joe
Maalouf and Kleib Kleib as members.
-Postponing the decision on the draft internal and
financial regulations of the National Commission for Human Rights, including
the Committee for the Prevention of Torture, in order to ensure the presence of
Minister of Justice in the next session.
The Council of Ministers also approved all the items
on its agenda.
After that, the Cabinet approved the draft general
budget law for the year 2021, and a draft law aimed at authorizing the
collection of imports as in the past and the disbursement of expenditures
starting from the first of February 2022 until the issuance of the budget law
for the year 2022, on the basis of the 12th rule.
As a result, the Council of Ministers began studying
the draft general budget law for the current year. The Minister of Finance
presented a detailed presentation on the foundations that were adopted, the
positive reasons and the positive points of the project, provided that the
Council, in successive daily sessions that will be held in the Grand Serail
starting tomorrow, will thoroughly study the draft budget, preparing for
referral to the Parliament.