Demands for Dabaiba to legally prosecute GNA officials

Mustafa Kamel

Following the handover ceremony between the Presidency Council of the Government of National Accord (GNA) headed by Fayez al-Sarraj, the new Presidential Council headed by Mohamed al-Menfi, and the new national unity government headed by Abdul Hamid Dabaiba, many calls came for the need to hold the previous government accountable, headed Sarraj and his ministers, and to seize their money. GNA officials were prevented from traveling, and they were interrogated following the appearance of the report issued by the Accounting Bureau in Tripoli for the fiscal year 2019, which saw the light after the Libyan parliament granted confidence to the new Libyan government. Dabaiba and the members of the new Libyan Government of National Unity (GNU) pledged to preserve Libya’s independence, security and territorial integrity, in addition to the issuance of his first decision in which he called on financial institutions, investment funds and public companies to freeze GNA accounts to prevent GNA officials from disposing of state funds.

During the process of handing over power, Sarraj said that he was handing over power to consolidate the principle of peaceful transfer, and he called for action through the GNU to hold general elections in which the will of the Libyans for change is embodied. He also called for achieving national reconciliation, saying that it is the best way for Libyans to reach the stage of permanent stability.

Calls for accountability

Dabaiba pledged to implement the reforms, in addition to a new challenge before the GNU that calls to investigate suspicions of corruption by members of the GNA, as this step comes at a time when voices and calls are increasing for an investigation into the GNA about its responsibility in the corruption that haunted Libya since it took power six years ago.

There have been many calls for GNA officials to be held accountable, prosecute them on charges of corruption, and prevent them from traveling. With suspicions of corruption and waste of public money, an investigation has been called for into the budgets and sums of money that were spent in violation of the law, indicating the need to investigate those incidents that violate the political agreement, the Constitutional Declaration and its amendments.

Lifting immunity

For his part, the head of the Libyan National Security Agency, Mohamed Hatwash, asked parliament to lift the immunity of first and second-class employees of the outgoing GNA and to prevent them from traveling due to criminal suspicions, corruption cases and state security issues.

Malik Abu Shahiwa, a professor of political science at the University of Tripoli, called for the issuance of a decision banning the travel of all those whose names were mentioned in the Accounting Bureau’s report, headed by Sarraj, his council, his ministers, his advisors, and the governor of the Central Bank in Tripoli, Sadiq al-Kabir, and to withdraw their passports and transfer them to the judiciary, pointing out that they contributed to Libya witnessing very bad conditions in all aspects of political, social, economic and moral life.

Meanwhile, Saad Ben Shrada, a member of the High Council of State, called on the GNA to present itself to the Libyan judiciary to prove its innocence, as he confirmed during a statement on Facebook that the handover and surrender of power between the authorities is not a showdown with words that tickle the citizen, but rather the beginning of the new government, which has a long journey ahead, and a finished government that is supposed to present itself before the Libyan judiciary. He noted that the emotional and tickling words of the civil state do not fatten or satiate the hunger of citizens, who do not care about the civilian state that looted their money and made them beg in the streets.

Dabaiba pre-empted these demands by issuing his first decision in which he called on financial institutions, investment funds and public companies to stop the movement of GNA accounts, thus preventing the possibility of officials who will leave the government disposing of state funds.

Uncovering the truth

The calls for accountability came after the release of a report issued by the Accounting Bureau in Tripoli issued in the fiscal year 2019. The report was released after the Libyan parliament granted confidence to the new Libyan government, which revealed the involvement of most of the GNA agencies, institutions and officials in corruption, plundering public money, financial abuse, manipulation, and waste of public money, stressing the need to take legal steps and hold the corrupt accountable.

The report confirmed the existence of irregularities and corruption within the sovereign ministries, including within the Ministry of Defense, confirming that the leaders of armed groups contracted with supply companies on their own for tens of millions of dinars. It pointed out that the expenses of military clothing for the militants amounted to 50 million dinars, while allocations to military areas reached 185 million dinars, in addition to concluding contracts and assignments without referring to the financial controller, as well as corruption and violation of the law in the operations of supplying cars and military equipment. The report also noted the violations and corruption in the expenditures of the GNA Ministry of Interior headed by Fathi Bashagha, confirming that the ministry’s office expenditures witnessed a 267% increase between 2016 and 2019, an increase of 2.4 billion dinars.

Preventing illegitimate interim decisions

In the wake of the handover of power from the GNA to the GNU, Dabaiba issued a decision to alert the ministers in the GNA and the interim government not to take any decisions or actions that contravene the management powers of “conducting business”.

In the statement, Dabaiba confirmed that many ministers in the two governments have taken measures that would bring about changes to some legal positions in public institutions and interests in contravention of the managerial powers of “conducting business”, which are required by the transition phase. The GNU has devoted itself to striving to establish the principles of the state of law and institutions, and it does not hesitate to confront any actions or measures that affect the principles and rules of administrative legitimacy or conflict with the public interest, stressing that all the decisions taken in contravention of the administrative tasks and the conduct of business in the ministries is considered null and does not result in any legal effect.