Banque du Liban. (Credit: João Sousa/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — Mount Lebanon Public Prosecutor Ghada Aoun criticized reports of a Banque du Liban mandated increase to judges’ and MPs’ salaries Thursday while employees at the state-run National News Agency went on strike to protest the decision.
Here’s what we know:
• Aoun described the increase as “humiliating,” as the person allegedly granting it, Banque du Liban Governor Riad Salameh, “is wanted in seven countries and in Lebanon for fraud, money laundering and illicit enrichment.” While a central bank spokesperson denied knowing about the increase, a judicial source confirmed to L’Orient Today that it had been enacted, crediting a BDL decision and noting that judges were informed individually from their respective banks.
• The policy allegedly stipulated by Banque du Liban would allow judges and MPs to withdraw their salaries at the LL8,000 to USD exchange rate, rather than the official rate at LL1,500, almost quintupling their wages while the parallel market rate hovers around LL28,000 to the dollar.
• Joining other public sector employees who are in the fourth week of an open-ended strike, NNA employees stopped working on Thursday, one of whom told L’Orient Today that the disparity in wages among public sector workers that would result from the judges’ raise was a tipping factor. Labor Minister Mustafa Bayram also spoke out against the injustice in compensation, considering it “unstudied and improvised selectivity” while Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri considered the disparity as potentially catastrophic and called for its rectification.