Today’s cabinet meeting, held ahead of the scheduled Thursday meeting, witnessed a walk out by Ministers of the Free Patriotic Movement, Hezbollah and Tashnaq.
The walk out was as a result of the Prime Ministers unwillingness to debate and discuss the meeting agenda. Rather the Mustaqbal allied Prime Minister and the other members of March 14 seemed to have taken decisions prior to the meeting.
The FPM and its allies rejected a proposal to open a new land fill in the Northern Lebanese region of Akkar in exchange for $100 million dollars of development aid to the region. Their rejection was on the basis that the cabinet was not presented with a list of so called development projects nor the method of implementation nor monitoring, nor was the decision open to discussion.
The actions of the Prime Minister and his rejection of genuine participation in the cabinet’s decision making process led Foreign Minister Gibran Bassil, of the FPM, to label the meeting a “farce”.
The cabinet continued its meeting after the walk out, voting to reject contracts that had been awarded the previous day, for waste collection services.
The rejection of these contract came after a huge public outcry in relation to the pricing of these contracts ($178 per tonne was awarded), and the political affiliations of the individuals whose companies had been awarded the contracts. The prices that had been agreed to could be considered to be the highest in the world and wreaked of corruption.
Education Minister Elias Bou Saab, also of the FPM, had stated earlier to newspapers that the tenders presented by Environment Minister Mohammed Mashnouk on Monday where a “garbage scandal”. He compared the tenders to the fable of the goose that laid a golden egg. Speaking about the rampant corruption in the tender process, Bou Saab stated “If you want to fight it, then you should fight those who benefit from this gold. This is the battle. Either they or the people would win”.
Speaking after his withdrawal from the cabinet meeting, Industry Minister Hussein Hajj Hasan said that the decision to withdraw was related to the Prime Ministers unwillingness to "listen to calls for true partnership," noting that the Prime Minister had recently passed around 70 decrees without them being voted on in cabinet after gaining the signatures of allied Ministers.
R.B 25/08/15