Former Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora on Friday hit back at Hezbollah for accusing him of illegally spending $11 billion during his tenure.
“The biggest corruption and greatest evil is political corruption. Those who create statelets within states and control its facilities are politically corrupt,” Siniora said during a press conference he held in Beirut, in an implicit reference to the Shiite party.
The former PM said that Hezbollah’s campaign against him aims to demonize all the governments headed by late former Premier Rafik Hariri and attack him as well as all the prime ministers who followed him, including Saad Hariri.
Last month, Hezbollah revived the longstanding controversy on the $11 billion spent during Siniora’s tenure in 2006 and 2007, when the Shiite party’s ministers had boycotted cabinet sessions.
Hezbollah deputy Hassan Fadlallah recently said that there were “manipulated and missing financial documents that could land a lot of people in jail.”
Two days ago, Fadlallah submitted the documents to the financial prosecutor, Judge Ali Ibrahim, who launched a probe by summoning an employee from the Ministry of Finance to hear her testimony.
Siniora explained that the spending, whether from the budget appropriations or the treasury, was not illegal.
“It was fully legal under the acts of Parliament. The spending was subject to the same mechanisms stipulated in the Public Accountancy Act, beginning with the prior and subsequent monitoring and approval of the expenditure controller and the Audit Court,” he said.
Siniora added that every disbursement is recorded, audited and available.
“Expenditures have full records in the ministries, including the Ministry of Finance, and published on its website,” he said.
