Starting from a Central Bank of Libya appendix showing $581.49 million associated with medicine-related foreign-currency use in 2025, The investigation contrasts the total with shortages and high retail costs. He calls for health-sector involvement in approvals and stronger auditing, while also making a broad fraud allegation that needs transaction-level proof.

USD 581,490,043

USD 581,490,043 — 2025 medicine-category foreign-exchange total cited

What the $581.49 million medicine total records

Medicine-related foreign-exchange use of $581.49 million in 2025 sits uneasily beside reports of shortages and high out-of-pocket prices. The contrast justifies an outcome audit, but it does not establish that most credits were fictitious or that the full financed value became medicine in the market.

The dollar total must be tied to the appendix’s exact definition and converted to dinars only with a stated rate and levy. Medicines, devices, raw materials and other health items should not be combined unless the source category does so explicitly. The number of companies is also distinct from transactions.

Why the LYD 6 billion conversion needs a rate

Medicine supply depends on procurement, registration, pricing, cold chain, distribution, hospital demand and payment arrears. A large FX bill can coexist with shortages when product mix is wrong, stocks expire, distribution fails or high-cost specialised products dominate value.

Shortages do not prove fictitious credits

Central-bank data can document financed or approved value; pharmacy availability and patient access require health-sector data. A claim of fictitious credits requires proof that suppliers, shipments or documents were false, not an inference from shortages.

A health-financing chain that can be audited

Health authorities should participate in need assessment and product prioritisation while banks verify payment documents. Procurement, medicines regulation, customs and tax systems should reconcile the same product and beneficiary identifiers.

Publish financing by medicine code, generic name, quantity, unit price, importer, manufacturer, bank and execution, linked in aggregate to customs clearance, distribution and shortage lists. Separate public procurement from private imports and report recalls or expired stock.

The conversion and the patient outcome are separate tests

The CBL appendix supports the $581,490,043 category total. Converting it to roughly LYD 6 billion would imply more than LYD 10.3 per dollar; that does not reconcile with a straightforward official-rate conversion for 2025 and therefore needs its rate, levy and any additional cost components published.

The outcome test is product-level: what medicines were financed, in what quantities and at what landed unit values; what cleared customs; what reached public facilities and pharmacies; what expired; and what patients paid. Shortage evidence can identify failure of supply, pricing or distribution, but cannot by itself prove a fictitious credit or money laundering.

Editorial method: This investigation rebuilds the original calculation from the linked public records, preserves the source period and transaction stage, and separates documented figures from estimates, interpretation and allegations.

Mohamed Algarj