The House of Representatives (HoR) held its first official public affairs session today at its Benghazi headquarters, under the chairmanship of the new HoR Speaker, Al-Salheen Abdel Nabi, in the presence of the First Deputy Speaker, Tariq Al-Ashtar, and the Second Deputy Speaker, Mesbah Douma.
The session began with a speech by the Speaker on the suffering of the citizen in terms of the economy, the high prices, housing problems, the role of the HoR in solving them, as well as the urgent need for a unified salary scale for all sectors and its separate differentiation bonuses.
The Speaker then directed the HoR committees during the session as follows:
The Planning and Finance Committee: should work to reduce the exchange rate in coordination with the Central Bank, determine a general import budget, prepare a unified salary scale in which all Libyans are equal and give a bonus to each sector according to the nature of its work, limit the first chapter to salaries only without the equivalent of them, disburse only through what is approved in the budget, and not to open credits without a balance to be matched in foreign or local currency.
The Economy Committee: to determine the allocated quantities of goods needed by the Libyan people annually in coordination with the Ministry of Economy.
The Health Committee: to determine the quantities of medicines needed annually by the health sector in coordination with the Ministry of Health and Medical Supply Organisation.
The Energy Committee: to determine the quantities of fuel needed to be supplied annually in coordination with the competent authorities.
The Education Committee: to follow up on the Unified Salary Scale and the previous teachers' allowance, and to count the actual teachers working.
This comes as the teachers are on strike seeking increased pay. The Speaker said there are about 700,000 registered teachers receiving state-sector salaries – but only about 170,000 actually work.
The Committee on Productive Sectors to Follow up on Agriculture to determine the needs of feed, grains, and materials and raw materials in industry.
Members’ observations regarding the internal regulations
The HoR subsequently began to discuss the agenda items, where the first item was discussed regarding the formation of a committee of members to receive the observations of the members regarding the internal regulations. In this regard, it was agreed to assign the Assistant Rapporteur of the House of Representatives to receive the names of HoR members who wish to join this committee.
The Libyan Emergency, Crisis and Disasters Management Authority
In the second item, a draft law on the establishment of the Libyan Emergency, Crisis and Disasters Management Authority was discussed. It was agreed to discuss the articles of the law separately and before starting the reading of the draft.
HoR member, Abdel Salam Nasiyah, gave a briefing on this draft law, and then the Second Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives began to read the text of the draft law and discuss the deputies after reading each article. The session was then suspended.