Libya’s looted money: GNA embezzles millions of corona donations

Amira Sherif

As the accusations against the Government of National Accord (GNA) continue day after day, the Libyan Audit Bureau revealed that funds directed to combat the outbreak of the corona pandemic went into the pockets of officials affiliated with the GNA, demanding the arrest of all those involved in the theft and embezzlement.

Fayez al-Sarraj’s GNA took advantage of the corona pandemic to allocate large budgets to confront the virus, even though none was spent for the allocated purpose, while the situation actually got worse due to falsified numbers of cases reported, which did not reflect reality.

The Bureau revealed in a new decision published on Thursday, August 13 the details of financial corruption, condemning the military medical department affiliated with the illegal GNA’s Ministry of Defense.

The Libyan Audit Bureau stated that funds that were allocated to confront the corona crisis were manipulated by officials of the department, who passed financial transactions in violation of the laws and regulations. They also approved and disbursed funds without corresponding work on the ground quarantine centers in the municipalities of Nalut, Zintan and Zuwara.

Libyan Audit Bureau head Khaled Shakshak requested the military prosecutor and attorney general to arrest of a number of officials from the department, as they colluded and exploited their positions for the purpose of achieving illegal benefits for others. Foremost among them was the director of the military medical department, Omar Howeidi.

The list of defendants also included Mohammed Salem Hussein, director of project management at the military medical department; supervising engineers Adnan Bashti, Abdul Hakim Salem Attia and Yunus Mohammed al-Maslam; and Ammar Mansour al-Taeb, financial controller at the department.

Shakshak also requested to “reserve amounts spent in excess in the accounts of a number of companies until their legal obligations are fulfilled and the sums they have obtained without right are retrieved.”

It is noteworthy that the GNA Presidential Council had allocated a large budget to confront the corona crisis, exceeding half a billion dollars, and granted part of it to the military medical department, tasking it with maintaining, altering and equipping health quarantine centers in a number of areas in western Libya, in addition to supplying and installing clinics ready to detect suspected cases and importing sterilizer spraying cars for municipalities. However, these allocations have been diverted, with officials and employees profiting from them.

According to documents and statements of the Brotherhood organization in Libya, the allocations exceeded $365 million, although the cases did not exceed hundreds and the basic needs to combat the virus were provided through donations from the Libyans themselves.

On April 8, Libyans in the western city of Misrata donated special facilities for medical personnel to convert into quarantine centers to confront the corona outbreak.

On May 18, the wife of Russian sociologist Maxim Shogali, who is imprisoned by terrorist militias in Tripoli, donated 42 ventilators to Libya to counter the corona pandemic.

Leaked documents also revealed the details of a new agreement between the GNA and Turkey allowing Ankara to monitor and control all Libya’s imports in the customs administration through a company owned by a businessman close to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.