In an interview with our journalist, the head of the Tripoli Audit Bureau, Khaled Shakshak, said: “The National Oil Corporation does not have the right to acquire foreign exchange until it withholds it. What it is doing is an attack on public treasury funds, and it only has what is allocated to it from the budget.”
He added: “Withholding revenues is stipulated in the Economic Penalty Law, which is an explicit violation of preventing the flow of state revenues according to their natural and known context. Continuing such behavior requires taking measures towards it, whether from the government or the Audit Bureau and the Public Prosecution.”
He continued, “We did not find an explanation for such behavior other than that it is irresponsible and will cause great damage at the level of the overall economy, despite the apparent reasons by the institution.”
He also explained, “There are two contradictory reasons – unfortunately – the first is that withholding revenues is an alternative reaction to closing oil, on the other hand, asking the head of the institution to allocate a budget and liquidate it completely for its accounts before supplying foreign exchange. This is a misplaced bargain.”
He continued: “The size of the budget requested by the Foundation is 37 billion for one year, which is a large budget in my opinion. It is possible to demand spending on the oil sector and making investments in it, but not in the way we see now.”
Shakshak also said: “The National Oil Corporation wants to obtain its budget from the source, by subjecting part of the revenues to its favor, even before it is referred to the Ministry of Finance and the Public Treasury.”
He concluded by saying: “Directly deducting the revenues and transferring them to the National Oil Corporation means the necessity of turning the Corporation into a holding company, and several measures that must be taken and specifying a certain percentage of sales, and this is not available.”
