A proposal presented by the “interim” unity government regarding reducing the salaries of ministers and senior officials in Libya sparked widespread criticism, in a move that observers saw as “not dissipating anger over wage gaps.”
The proposal prepared by the Ministry of Finance included setting a fixed ceiling for some senior officials, ministers, and heads of sovereign, supervisory, and judicial bodies, at 9,000 dinars per month.
But a number of observers believe that “the essence of dissatisfaction is not related to the size of the reduction alone; Rather, it is the conviction of a sector of Libyans that a segment of elites and senior officials do not depend for their standard of living on official salaries. Because they also benefit from additional privileges, allowances and allocations.”
According to the former Minister of Economy and Trade in the “Unity” government, Muhammad Al-Hawaij, “the minister’s net salary currently amounts to 10 thousand dinars per month.” Pointing out in a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat that some ministers “double this number through allowances for travel, housing, and foreign assignments.”
These concessions raise questions about the ability of reducing the basic salary to reduce the total income of officials. Especially in light of the decline in the purchasing power of the dinar, noting that the currency exchange rate varies between the official price of about 6.40 dinars to the dollar, and the “parallel market” in which it is close to 10 dinars.
Talk about officials’ salaries sparked sarcastic comments on social media. In this context, Libyan journalist Ahmed Al-Senussi asked how some ministers dealt with the reduction proposal, highlighting that a piece of their luxury clothing or shoes could sometimes reach 900 euros.
For his part, Libyan political analyst Mohamed Mahfouz stopped at the street’s conviction that “the elites do not depend on their official salaries,” considering that this explains the irony of the reduction. He told Asharq Al-Awsat, “The salaries these people receive over the years are not commensurate with their high standard of living, and therefore they will not care about any financial decision.”
From an economic angle, Ali Al-Sharif, professor of economics at the University of Benghazi, said that reducing salaries is “not easy,” pointing out that the salary of the President of the Presidential Council and his two deputies may decline from about 25 thousand dinars to 9 thousand dinars per month.
But Al-Sharif pointed out that senior officials “ultimately represent less than 2 percent of state workers,” considering that reducing their incomes alone will not lead to a tangible improvement in the economic situation. He also warned against compensating the reduction with bonuses, pointing out that the performance discrimination bonus for some bodies reaches 70 percent.
On the other hand, criticism shifted to the basic salaries proposed for the rest of the employees. The proposal specified 1,000 dinars for the first job grade, 1,710 dinars for the eighth grade, and 4,912 dinars for the sixteenth grade, which brought the discussion back to the adequacy of wages.
Al-Hawaij criticized these levels, saying that “wages do not suffice for the necessary needs; Especially since about 40 percent of the population is below the poverty line,” he pointed out that salaries - according to his estimate - range between the equivalent of $100 and $430 per month.
Political analyst Hossam El-Din Al-Abdali attributed the street’s objection to this proposed schedule to its failure to meet the demands of low-income people and the middle class. He told Asharq Al-Awsat that “the unions did not focus on reducing the salaries of representatives from 16,000 to 9,000 dinars, as much as they focused on the small increase granted to them.”
From a broader perspective, the former Minister of Economic Affairs in the “Unity” government, Salama Al-Ghawil, criticized reducing the treatment of the wage file to “reducing the salaries of ministers, representatives, and other pillars of power, and highlighting the reduction of the difference between their incomes and the generality of citizens.”
He told Asharq Al-Awsat, “Tackling the issue requires an integrated program for economic, administrative, and social reform that links wages to production, and before that, addressing the political and governmental division, and the resulting inflation in the numbers of state workers.”
Libya is experiencing a division between the “unity” government headed by Abdul Hamid Al-Dabaiba in Tripoli in the west, and the government appointed by the House of Representatives headed by Osama Hammad, which runs the east and some cities in the south, and enjoys the support of the commander of the “National Army,” Khalifa Haftar.
Although he did not support the inflated salaries of senior officials, Al-Ghawil criticized their reduction “in an ill-considered manner that does not take into account the privacy of the position and the requirements of public work,” stressing that “the crisis does not lie in the official’s salary; Rather, it is about how to achieve dignity of living for all.”
Official figures reveal the size of the burden represented by the wages item in the Libyan state budget. During the first nine months of this year, the salaries of about two million two hundred thousand employees amounted to about 60 billion dinars, equivalent to about 68 percent of the total public spending amounting to 88.6 billion dinars.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry reported in a statement on Saturday that a phone call took place between its Minister Badr Abdel Aty and the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union, Kaya Kallas, which touched on “the boom in relations between Egypt and the European Union.”
Abdel Aty stressed the importance of working to attract more European investments to Egypt, facilitating the access of Egyptian exports to European markets, and strengthening private sector partnerships.
The phone call represents “an important indicator of the vitality of Egyptian-European relations, and the keenness of both sides to continue developing the strategic and comprehensive partnership, at a regional and international moment in which challenges are increasing,” according to what former Assistant Foreign Minister, Ambassador Mohamed Hegazy, said in an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat.
He stressed, “The success of the Egyptian-European talks requires building on the existing political momentum and transforming strategic understandings into executive programs and measurable mutual interests.”
According to the Egyptian Foreign Ministry’s statement, the Cairo and Brussels talks dealt with “the ongoing arrangements in preparation for the second Egyptian-European summit scheduled to be hosted by Egypt next year.”
According to Hegazy, the second Egyptian-European summit acquires “special political and strategic importance, as it is not just a protocol station to review what has been achieved, but rather an opportunity to re-evaluate the partnership, determine its priorities for the coming years, and establish clear mechanisms to move it to a deeper and more influential level.”
Freedom of navigation and the safety of international trade lines in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandab, the Suez Canal, and the Gulf “represent a common interest for Egypt, Europe, and the entire global economy,” according to Hegazy.
On Saturday, the National Council for Human Rights received a delegation from the European Union mission to Cairo, to discuss ways to enhance cooperation and partnership between the two sides, and to discuss a number of issues and topics of common interest in the field of human rights.
