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BEIRUT - Lebanon's parliament on Wednesday approved a law to allow the country's first state budget in 12 years to be passed before auditing previous years' accounts, Lebanese news outlets al-Jadeed and LBC said.
Successive governments have failed to pass annual budgets due to a string of political crises since the 2005 assassination of former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri.
Passing a budget was the key priority for Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri's government which took office in January and is a vital and long-overdue step towards reforming Lebanon's fragile economy and preventing rising debt spinning out of control.
A key obstacle to passing the 2017 and previous budgets has been demands from some politicians that an audit of extra-budgetary spending from previous years be carried out.
After two full days of discussion, late on Wednesday parliament approved a law allowing the budget to be passed before such an audit is completed and giving the minister of finance up to a year to carry it out.
The government's annual accounts have not been officially closed and signed off on since 1993, a standard procedure for governments and a constitutional requirement for Lebanon before a new year's budget can be passed.
Parliament will meet again on Thursday for another day of discussing the budget.
(Reporting by Lisa Barrington Additional reporting by Sarah Dadouch Editing by Jeremy Gaunt) ((lisa.barrington@thomsonreuters.com; +961)(0)(1954456;))
Successive governments have failed to pass annual budgets due to a string of political crises since the 2005 assassination of former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri.
Passing a budget was the key priority for Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri's government which took office in January and is a vital and long-overdue step towards reforming Lebanon's fragile economy and preventing rising debt spinning out of control.
A key obstacle to passing the 2017 and previous budgets has been demands from some politicians that an audit of extra-budgetary spending from previous years be carried out.
After two full days of discussion, late on Wednesday parliament approved a law allowing the budget to be passed before such an audit is completed and giving the minister of finance up to a year to carry it out.
The government's annual accounts have not been officially closed and signed off on since 1993, a standard procedure for governments and a constitutional requirement for Lebanon before a new year's budget can be passed.
Parliament will meet again on Thursday for another day of discussing the budget.
(Reporting by Lisa Barrington Additional reporting by Sarah Dadouch Editing by Jeremy Gaunt) ((lisa.barrington@thomsonreuters.com; +961)(0)(1954456;))
