Hariri says auditing report causes political polarization

Prime minister Rafik Hariri described the monitoring institutions' report as a rightful word used for the wrong purposes, during the opening of the first historical convention yesterday in Sidon.

He declared that the report, which was discussed during the parliament's finance and budget committee on Thursday, "falls into the context of political polarization". He said that he couldn't claim that the country was 100% on track but the accusations cast were not true. "What is happening is a shame", he affirmed.

Confirming the prime minister's speech, the government's auditing department declared yesterday that the report in question wasn't set to criticize the government or insinuate that public funds were being wasted, as the media had reported. It was a comparison between the government's spending in 1996 and the proposed 1997 figures to guide the parliamentary committee in its study of the budget draft.

Speaker Nabih Berri, on the other hand, expressed its surprise about the prime minister's speech. He declared that what happened during the committee's session was not for political, but for administrative restoration.