Tripoli, The Representative’s Office announced, today, Wednesday, the detention of the Minister of Culture and Knowledge Development, in pretrial detention, pending cases of financial corruption in special maintenance contracts for the ministry.

In a statement, the office said that the Public Prosecution had ordered the minister’s pretrial detention after revealing to her the validity of obtaining benefits in violation of laws and regulations from public money, spending it in a manner other than the intended purpose, and falsifying official documents for the purpose of complicating the procedures for reviewing and tracking aspects of the disbursement of public money.

The office explained that the opening of the case came about the reports submitted in a number of corruption incidents that marred the administrative and financial work carried out by the ministry, including contracting for the maintenance of the book and publishing house building, the meeting room of the ministry, and the traffic circle established in front of the ministry building; Although the Ministry has maintained the aforementioned buildings and facilities during the past year, relying on covering the last aspects of expenditure on the documents approved when executing the previous contract.

The statement indicated that the Public Prosecutor directed an investigation into the case, and the financial and administrative documents and documents were reviewed, and the extent of their procedural integrity was reviewed for the aspects of spending public money; A number of other measures were taken, the latest of which was the questioning of the Minister of Culture and Knowledge Development today, Wednesday, before the Public Prosecutor ordered her detention in connection with these cases.

Source: Libyan News Agency