MOSCOW, September 27 (Itar-Tass) —— UN humanitarian agencies should monitor the spending from unfrozen Libyan accounts, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Rossiya 24 on Tuesday.
“The accounts should be unfrozen because, in the end, the money belongs to the people of Libya. However, it is necessary to monitor the spending. The UN Security Council has approved the unfreezing of $1.5 billion and suggested a mechanism of the monitoring of the expenditures. There must be transparency; it must be clear who spends the money and how; there must be monitoring,” he said.
“Ideally, UN humanitarian agencies should be involved in this work, as they are experienced in such monitoring,” he said.
“Some $1.5 billion have been sent to Libya for humanitarian aid, restorations of the infrastructure and the solution of certain financial tasks,” Lavrov said.
“However, several tens of billions of dollars are still frozen. It is a giant sum, and we need to think about the [spending] mechanism. We have taken a step, which help us solve urgent tasks,” he said.
“Let us not forget that the new Libyan administration has been repeatedly delaying the formation of the new government. That is an important stage, which will show who the Libyan partner is,” the minister said.