Lebanon's Cabinet convened on Monday in a session chaired by President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, and attended by Prime Minister Najib Mikati and ministers.
The Cabinet approved the 2021 draft budget law and decided to hold consecutive daily sessions to approve the 2022 draft budget law, in preparation to referring the budget to the Parliament.
In addition, the Cabinet approved a series of social offerings and an increase in transportation allowance for the public and private sectors, and military and security agencies, fulfilling promises to workers in the formal educational sector.
President Michel Aoun considered 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".
The President also asserted that "When the government is not resigned, the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister cannot issue exceptional approvals", asking to start studying livelihood issues which concern citizens, provided that agenda topics will be studied later.
For his part, Prime Minister Mikati indicated that "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".
The Prime Minister also revealed that "Upcoming sessions will be full of issues and basic files for all ministries and departments".
The session started at 9:00 am in the presence of ministers, except Justice Minister Henry Khoury, who is on an official mission to Iraq. The Cabinet session was preceded by a meeting between the President and Prime Minister, during which agenda topics were deliberated, in addition to life and livelihood issues.
Then, the Cabinet decided to approve the following:
- 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 pounds 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 pounds for each day of actual attendance.
- A draft decree aiming to give a monthly lump sum transfer compensation of 1,200,000 Lebanese pounds 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 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.
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 Cabinet 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 Cabinet, 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.
Prior to their departure from the Presidential Palace after the session ended, some ministers had a chat with journalists.
Minister of Finance Youssef El-Khalil announced, in response to a question, that the customs dollar would be calculated according to the price approved on Sayrafa platform.
Minister of Energy Walid Fayad, when asked about the date of signing the expected agreements for energy import, indicated that "Lebanon will sign next Wednesday two agreements: one with Jordan to supply energy, and the other with Jordan and Syria to import energy through Syrian territories".
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Abdallah Bou Habib, in response to a question about the date of response to the Kuwaiti paper, stated that discussions will begin today, and the response will be ready before next Saturday.
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