Corruption or incompetence allegations dog Libya's governments

Rival Libyan administrations overseeing the war-torn, oil-rich country's affairs have been accused of financial improprieties and economic mismanagement as they seek to establish control over resources and revenues.

The allegations include officials being pressured to buy weapons from France and appoint people to key positions of economic power as well as gross mismanagement of the country's oil wealth, which accounts for more than 90 per cent of Libya's revenues.

In terms of corruption and financial mismanagement, "the two governments are two faces of the same coin," said one analyst, who asked that his name not be used as it would endanger his family in Tripoli, the Libyan capital.

The allegations underscore the severity of the oil-rich country's crisis. The internationally recognised government of Abdullah al-Thinni in the east and the Islamist-leaning Libya Dawn alliance in the west both claim sole authority to rule Libya.

Over the past year, at least 3,380 have been killed in clashes, crossfire or assassinations, according to the website Libya Body Count, while hundreds of thousands of Libyans remain displaced by four years of conflict. Plagued by instability since the overthrow of Muammer Gaddafi in 2011, jihadi groups are increasingly filling the power vacuum, to the alarm of EU governments.

The latest allegations also come amid an attempt by the Thinni government to declare its own oil ministry and collect revenue for oil sales; until now a Tripoli-based oil ministry deemed independent by the UN, US and UK has managed the country's oil wealth.

In a decree dated April 2, the Thinni government declared plans to open a bank account for the proposed ministry in the United Arab Emirates, begin exporting crude and energy products, import refined fuels, sign and revise contracts, and establish offices in the US, UK and Germany.

Along with the continuing clashes in and around the capital, the financial allegations and the oil ministry declaration could complicate UN attempts to broker a peace deal between the two warring sides. On 31 March, the Libya Dawn parliament, the General National Congress, sacked its prime minister, Omar al-Hassi, who initially called the move illegal before finally succumbing under pressure.

Days earlier, the head of Libya's official government, prime minister Abdullah al-Thinni, gave an explosive interview in which he accused his allies of putting him under pressure to make financial decisions in their favour.

Mr Thinni accused one of his predecessors and erstwhile patrons, the liberal politician Mahmoud Jebril, of pressuring him to sign a deal to buy weapons from France. "I told them if it was true that they were the ones who brought me to power, I wouldn't mind if they removed me from this position at once," he said in an interview with Akhbar al-Hadath, a newspaper.

He also alleged that the same camp pressured him to name a new head of the Libyan Investment Authority, the big investment vehicle currently under the control of a group widely considered independent of both rival authorities. "I do not submit to pressure and I refused," he said.

Both Mr Thinni and Mr Hassi have complained that their political backers do not give them sufficient resources. Mr Thinni, who has been facing claims of unpaid salaries, said that since September 22 he has been paying his eastern government's bills from a 750m Libyan dinar ($535m) loan secured from the country's Commercial Bank.

Mr Thinni also alleged that Islamist leaders now at the forefront of the Libya Dawn movement last year offered him money to step down as prime minister in favour of a rival, Ahmed Meteeg.

The same figures may have been behind the ousting of Mr Hassi, who has been replaced temporarily by a deputy, Khalifa al-Ghawi.

The self-declared Dawn parliament accused Mr Hassi of underestimating he severity of the western-based authority's financial troubles, overestimating surplus funds from previous budgets at 50bn Libyan dinars when they turned to be worth no more than 3.7bn dinars .

Mr Hassi had said it was up to parliament to present him a budget - a statement mocked by lawmakers.

"Omar Hassi's was a government of totally incompetent people," said one analyst in Tripoli. "Most of the [officials] had nothing to do with management. The financial problems are more a consequence of incompetence than corruption."

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