Informed sources told “Sky News Arabia” that the Public Prosecution had found that the Government of National Unity had liquidated the amount of coverage of printing and supplying books, and had given permission to contract, with the issuance of an authorization from the Ministry of Planning to disburse the amount.
The sources added that Ministry of Education officials did not provide reasons for not contracting to print books, which actually led to “the difficulty of providing textbooks” absolutely this year.
The minister had previously formed a committee to print books in April last year, but it did not carry out its tasks, according to what was revealed by the deputy director of the Center for Educational Curricula and Educational Research in the Libyan Ministry of Education, Mahmoud Al-Wondi.
Al-Wondi said, in a press statement, that the funds needed to print books have been distributed to the ministry’s accounts since last June, stressing that it is the first time that the school year begins in Libya without new books.
He pointed out that it would take months if textbooks were printed outside the country, which is a real “disaster”, which prompted the Public Prosecutor to open an investigation into the matter.
The Libyan political researcher, Muhammad Qashut, said that this crisis is a “precedent” in the history of the state, as it did not occur even when the country was subjected to sanctions and an economic blockade in the 1990s, despite the weak budgets that reached “zero” in some years.
He added, to “Sky News Arabia”, that the printing of school books also did not stop during the period from 2014 to 2020, adding that despite the disbursement of billions during the past eight months, “Parents stand in queues in front of shops in order to buy photocopies of old copies of Textbooks”, where the price of a copy in Tripoli reached 70 dinars, and it is sold in Benghazi for 100 dinars.
The Minister of Education, Musa Al-Maqrif, attributed the reasons for the delay in printing the textbook, to the delay in the budgets allocated to the Ministry of Education, before a financial mandate was issued last September to print the textbook, in addition to the ministry’s “measures” in order to move away from assigning printing with a direct order. , in order to avoid suspicion.
He added, in a press statement, that the ministry published an announcement in front of companies wishing to register for the tender, and received several requests until foreign companies were selected, pointing out that the ministry held a meeting with the Audit Bureau; To ensure that the procedures are legal, and to exclude suspicious companies.
He continued, “The ministry has given priority to the first semester, and soon it will provide the first semester in full,” but added that some observers already have ready-made books, noting that kindergarten books are fully available and will be distributed, and some titles also exist.
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