Speaker of House of Representatives Holds Meeting with Chairpersons of Parliamentary Groups and Caucus on Wednesday, October 14th, 2020

Speaker of House of Representatives Habib El Malki held a meeting with the chairpersons of the parliamentary groups and caucus in the presence of some officials from the Deposit and Management Fund (CDG).

At the start of the meeting, the Speaker of the House stressed the importance of this meeting with the House components to review the latest developments in managing the pensions issue, which has been witnessing a serious shortfall since 2017, therefore inhibiting the payment of pensions.

Besides, the House’s Speaker and the chairpersons of the parliamentary groups and caucus recalled all the stages of debating this issue, which were always marked by a patriotism characterized by the engagement to fulfill the national duty imposed by the mission they are carrying. The Speaker and the House components also stressed the imperative of drafting a final resolution that can be subject to the unanimous agreement of the nation's representatives.

Also, the meeting was an opportunity to recall the parliamentary memory. In this respect, the participants reviewed the institution's history that is replete with the contributions and achievements of the nation's representatives for more than half a century and thanks to whose positive accumulations our country has been able to establish and entrench the foundations of representative democracy, and to consolidate qualitative participation. Additionally, the Parliament has been an ample space for debate on the nation’s issues and forming political elites, and a central actor in different areas of public affairs.

Following that, the officials responsible for managing the system gave a detailed presentation on the system of pensions for the members of the House of Representatives. The presentation included the legal framework that regulates the system and the terms of the agreement by which the House of Representatives has conferred the management of the system to the Deposit and Management Fund (CDG).

The officials also presented some data on the nature of the system, its resources, expenditures, technical structure, demographic and financial indicators, in addition to some data relative to its current state, highlighting the imbalance between its resources and expenditures.

Considering the aforementioned data and the spirit of national debate that characterized the issue of the pensions for the members of the House of Representatives, both between the House components and within the Finance and Economic Development Committee; a debate that was marked with realism and the will to resolve the issue, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the chairpersons of the parliamentary groups and caucus have agreed on launching the implementation of the measures to permanently liquidate the pension system in concertation and coordination with the House organs, and to work on drafting a legal framework to achieve this end.