A statement from the office of the Deputy Prime Minister, Saad Al-Shami, reads: "The reasons circulated for the delay in studying the reform law projects sent from the government to the Parliament are, unfortunately, a form of responsibility passing, although I am not absolving some governmental entities from part of the responsibility. The emphasis on knowing the audited figures from auditing firms before starting to study the laws takes us back in memory to the time when the agreement with the Fund faltered due to disputes over figures. Furthermore, auditing the banks' accounts, which we are currently working on after securing part of the financing, will not be completed overnight, but may take around a year. Do we have the luxury of waiting all that time?"
He added: "The Finance and Budget Committee could have started studying the foundations and principles upon which the law projects were based before the audited numbers from the auditing firms. Nevertheless, the Banque du Liban and the Banking Control Commission sent the numbers requested by the Finance and Budget Committee, and based on them, the Prime Minister's advisor, Samir Al-Daher, provided a detailed methodology study for addressing deposits and banking obligations within the framework of the proposed law for restoring balance in the banking sector on March 15, but since then, the Finance and Budget Committee or the subcommittee derived from it has not convened."
He continued: "Perhaps this is because the committee was preoccupied with finishing the study of the Sovereign Fund law, knowing that any potential oil and gas resources will not materialize for several years. It is incomprehensible how priorities are determined when discussing law projects. How can the study of this law be given priority when we do not even know, in terms of gas and oil, what quantities can be commercially exploited? And why has the approval of this law not required knowledge of the existing quantities, even though it set certain percentages for foreign investment without needing audited figures and without considering the needs of current generations and the budget requirements in the coming years?"
He concluded: "If the laws proposed by the government, which are reform laws that came within the framework of the recovery plan, are like 'fish in the sea,' how should we describe giving priority to the Sovereign Fund law? Is it selling fish before catching it?"
