Tunisia interim finance minister quits over ‘conflict of interests’

TUNIS / Reuters

Tunisia’s prime minister accepted the resignation of interim finance minister Fadhel Abdelkefi over a conflict of interest in a judicial case, but said he had asked him to stay on until a replacement is found.
Abdelkefi is a key member of Prime Minister Youssef Chahed’s government, which is under pressure to carry out contentious economic reforms demanded by international lenders and cut its budget deficit. Abdelkefi said he would continue in his post until an expected cabinet reshuffle. He faces a judicial hearing on September 4.
The judicial case against Abdelkefi involves foreign currency payments that were investigated by Tunisia’s customs department. Abdelkefi heads the customs department in his position as acting finance minister.
It emerged earlier this week that he had been handed a fine and a suspended prison sentence, which he is appealing against. His resignation comes at a sensitive moment as Tunisia tries to finalise its 2018 budget. Abdelkefi announced that he was quitting on local radio, saying he wanted to defend himself as an ordinary citizen, not a minister.
“The country needs to put in place painful reforms, including
the revision of subsidies, a review of the economic model, and privatisations of some public banks and companies, in order to give the Tunisian economy a confidence boost,” he told Tunisian radio
station Mosaique FM.