According to Knight Ridder, the Libyan dictator, Colonel Mouammar Kadhafi has pledged to abolish the oil ministry and distribute oil revenues directly to the people. Kadhafi said, according to Reuters, “All citizens have the right to benefit from the oil funds. They should take the money and do whatever they want with it.” He said that the committees that run the oil ministry and other government agencies have failed. “These committees will be replaced spontaneously by real committees to be created everywhere by citizens. Citizens will get part of the oil revenue directly. They don’t need intermediaries.” How these citizen committees will be able to distribute money directly to the people is unclear. Khadafi has made similar statements in the past, and so we should not necessarily expect the creation of a Libyan oil dividend to be imminent.
For more on this issue, see:
Ministries Abolished, Oil Revenues to be Distributed to Libyans
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Monday, March 03, 2008
https://libcom.org/forums/news/libya-abolish-most-ministries-oil-revenue-be-distributed-04032008
