MP Ibrahim Kanaan stressed that “rationalizing spending must take place under all circumstances, not only in times of war,” affirming his support for granting the administration certain powers to facilitate its work, “without undermining or abolishing oversight.”
Speaking during a roundtable organized by the “Nation of Human Beings Project,” he noted that financial oversight “is not actually being exercised,” pointing out that state accounts since 1993 “have not been audited and have not reached Parliament.” He said the reason lies in successive governments’ violation of spending laws and the absence of budgets between 2005 and 2016, adding that “a budget without a final account loses its value.”
Kanaan criticized the existence of “funds outside the framework of oversight,” warning against the continued absence of real accountability. He said: “Without a clear mechanism that binds the executive authority and holds it accountable, we will remain stuck in the same cycle.”
He also addressed the decline in revenues amid the war, questioning the status of the Treasury account and the state’s ability to withstand the situation, amid talk of a drop in revenues of nearly 40%.
He also renewed his rejection of “tampering with the reserves as happened previously,” stressing that the solution begins with “the state, in all its authorities, abiding by the laws and activating oversight,” considering that this is tied to a culture that must be entrenched at the institutional level.
