The Libyan Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah said he will allocate 500 million dinars to municipalities from the development budget, saying financial violations led to the deterioration of cleaning services at the municipalities.

The remarks came in the first meeting of the High Council for Local Management on Wednesday in Tripoli in the presence of mayors and deputies of the Prime Minister as well as a number of ministers.

"We are aware of the burdens on municipalities as they have no authority and financial allocations. We hail their roles in responding to crises and national reconciliation efforts. We have started working on decentralization from the start of the government’s mandate and our work continues to provide the needed support for that. 500 million dinars are going to be allocated for the municipalities as a first stage to resolve the current issues, knowing that more funds will be allocated later." Dbeibah said.

He added that the government is working on transferring authorities to municipalities and some ministries have been instructed to do so in certain areas, such as environment work, construction licenses, and local projects.

Dbeibah also indicated that they are working on activating local management laws to allow municipalities to make profit from certain fees, saying the Local Governing Ministry was instructed to print out receipts for the municipalities.