A three days visit to Lebanon, and that was all I heard of…
One thing is for sure: The image they started off as a challenge to provide electricity, became today the challenge of proving innocence to corruption…
The Distribution Service Providers (DSP) project was awarded to three main contractors and one consulting firm, :
Debbas for the South, ACC for Mount-Lebanon and Butec for the North. The consultant is Khatib & Alami.
Frankly, all four companies are renowned international ones. So let’s cross out two major issues here:
- These companies can deliver, they have absolutely no reason not to. They’ve done it elsewhere in the world, they will do it in Lebanon.
- These companies will make money out of the job. They have to. They will make money to pay for the expected good quality materials they’ll use, the quality workmanship they will employ, and I hope their social security and tax dues… What remains is our government’s obligation to make sure of that.
Now the main concern: Are our government representatives taking advantage of their positions in order to get richer from such projects? Here are the eyebrow lifters:
- Debbas, generally March 14 oriented, works in the backyard of South’s Landlord MP Nabih Berri.
- ACC, generally half-half oriented, is partially owned by PM & International Business Tycoon Najib Mikati.
- Butec, generally March 8 oriented, has its owner being the electoral partner and ally of our Electricity Minister and Business man Gebran Bassil.
- The above companies were allocated the DSP project without any bidding process… *
(*Source: The Executive)
This Politicized structure has all the good reasons for us to doubt a clean and transparent background, or as we say: it smells like something is happening “under the table”.
Because of previous experiences, because there is no independent judiciary system to hold accountability, because there is no anti-corruption police & investigators to control, because no pragamatic system is allowed to be established in order to guaranty confidence in any statement, and obviously because politicians like it this way, Media and Marketing make their way into our doubt & skepticism and drive our emotions and therefore conclusions.
So if you want to prove corruption, relax, you will not be able today to acquit nor convict of Minister Bassil, let alone any of the others. Instead, it will all boil down to us having to allocate our trust in the 2013 elections.
So while i recon that we will eventually get electricity, one has the right to doubt the final cost of this project, along with their cash-flow because of the following questions:
Do you believe that Debbas will be able to work in the south without passing a due to Amal’s MP Nabih Berri?
Do you believe that Glory Party’s, PM Najib Mikati will abstain from exceptionally gratifying ACC’s jobs in Mount Lebanon?
Do you believe that FPM’s Electricity Minister Bassil has orchestrated all the above without any illegal benefit?
If so, in 2013, vote for them, and if not don’t… Because as it happens, we might pay again tomorrow the price of the choices we make today.
in order for u to criticize this topic you should have a memory that’s older than 2 years and think about what was going on before with this issue and how its being handled now with the new government. Plus if you are thinking that our electric companies are capable of delivering 24h electricity without any adjustment( that costs money by the way) you are mistaken or you’re basing your ideas on false information. plus you ask if they are corrupted or not, well no one can answer this questions more truthfully than the future and in the future when you see that money was “stolen” throughout this project, than you can answer this for now i advise you to be optimistic and if stuff doesn’t go the way you think it should go ( and if i guessed right it’s uncorrupted project ) all you have to do is vote against them in June 2013 and elect new people that u think will elect a new prime minister that is going to elect new ministers that aren’t going to be corrupted , and by new i mean new faces that are not corrupt because it is proven nowadays that all the past governments were corrupted and stole money from your pockets without even giving something back in return unless u consider giving electricity 12 h a day a miraculous thing ! with all the money spent on improving electricity since the 90s, and for example here in this situation when u see that an X amount of money on improving the electricity in the country and we have a Z result u can judge on how and where the money was spent and if there was corruption, its not by assumptions alone that u answer such a question.
I hope i get a reply on this thank you.
Hi Eddy,
Thank you for your comment & I will gladly try to answer it…
You are right, we have suffered electricity since I can remember having a candle, and that is more than 30 yrs for sure.
In fact, simply because of a natural growing population and growing demand, the constant upgrade of the electricity is natural, not exceptional. Only in Lebanon it is seen unusual and we tend to sell “standards” as “exceptional”.
Now we lived a similar upgrade before: 20 years ago we have built the Zahrani plant along with many substations, in the south. 20 years ago it was a major upgrade for EDL’s system let alone the jiyyeh reservoirs etc…. 20 years ago, Berri was the landlord of the south, and 20 years later we are still paying the bill of mismanagement & loans let alone corruption. Wait: 20 years later what has changed? Now convince me that this is not a sell out… And if it is seen as “a price to pay, to get things running”, we’ve heard that same sentence with the blue team 10 years earlier…. We know how it ended: you are right again in corruption.
You are right, about “adjustments” (they are called variations) and if no variations happen in a project that means something is either extremely perfect or extremely wrong. My question was and remains: Will I get what I paid for, once the job is done? Personally I still doubt.
But why do you think that there is something wrong with doubting & questioning? This exercise is legitimate and done regularly in every respectable country for every project, are we not tending to be respectable? so why take it personal? Even further, respectable countries have courts to clear or convict every leader’s action: you trust him with a plan; he goes to court and clear any popular doubts: from generals leading wars, ministers in foreign policies, to presidents having a good time in the oval office…
So I do not see why it is so dishonoring? The only logical reason would be… well now we’re starting to draw conclusions, aren’t we?
As for wanting me to be optimistic, I am. I believe that we will eventually have electricity. But what we are being asked for in this entire configuration is for us to rather to “place faith”.
Sorry but there is no more faith left for any one. So I see it as an obligation to hold accountable every entrepreneur, in love & not hate, on every action. And I expect humbleness by the trustee to accept this accountability. I mean hey: client is king right? We are the clients of this plan but they are the kings? Why?
My optimism on whether we will have electricity for the right price, relies proportionally on how much skepticism we have as accountability factor, sadly that is best expressed today in voting.
So, while I wish them success in the electricity plan, so there will be light, for the sake of Lebanon, I’d rather see them place a similar effort on a “just” not biased electoral law…
Now I will return your advice here and request that you be optimistic too about new faces in elections, after all, who claims “change and reform” has to dare to be also subjected to it too, no?
Again, i enjoyed reading your comment and hope i answered it.
I truly thing it is a sham.
Edgar Zarifeh, Sham or no sham, are we going to have electricity or NOT ??
In both cases the contractors and the contracting administration will be brought to justice if the project fails or under the table practice is proven.
Hi Edgar,
If the contractors were brought to justice then by now plenty would have been in jail. I don’t know of any. Worst yet, are there any gov reps that we know were corrupt even close to being brought to justice? Because they like it that way….
So I am not confident that we have what you request.
I am hoping that accountability with electoral votes. The later being our individual empowerment to give credit to merit…
I believe you mean shame, and you are right!
I also believe that just EVERYONE in the Lebanese administration is suspectedly corrupted until he proves his innocence!!! (I know it should be the opposite…)
Hi , i believe that All governments around the world , are bunch of money hungry people ,or not a good successful business people , any way you look at it the public end up paying he price for their greediness , or their stupidities , and after all , we can see the success of privatizations any place you look at it ,we can see the proof in Canada the private Firms can provide better services , and make profits , and have qualified workers to deliver the services to the public , not employees with
back up from this minister or that Mp or this party leader , its very simple ,
the same negative Example in Greece , how many times the system has been bailed out
we have no one to bail us out but the poor public , Enough is Enough,
Hi Mustafa,
I agree with the fact that privatization, to a certain debatable extent, is extremely healthy for a country. But whether we privatize or not we will always need representatives that make such decisions for us, we will always have government employees, we will always haveprivate company employees and business men and therefore we will always have corruption to fight against.
So what we expect as end user of services is to get what we pay for, and the politicians role (top of the decision making chain) is not to throw responsibilities left & right, rather to abide and hold himself accountable to governmental systems mainly an independent judiciary body and a fair electoral system.
Sadly our Lebanon has seen a misconfiguration of such cycle. It is a vicious cycle with many exits solutions. I believe in the “cast a white ballot” one.
this is b.s. budd ! you gotta live in lebanon 1st and listen to every single tv channel !!
you can’t judge Mr bassil and you can’t blame him for the bad situation of the lebanese electric power !!
1st you gotta listen to the guy, and i mean his full statements !!
you will notice he’s suggesting projects to improve the power and water problem we have !!
but no funding for it !
so plz be objective and don’t listen to one news station !
the FPM is the only party in lebanon i depend on to rebuild lebanon! not a christian state as the LF are planning for
thanks
Hi George,
I don’t understand where you’ve seen a judgement on Mr. Bassil, nor how you concluded me being influenced by one TV or another, nor how the LF got plugged into this post.
But your statement: “the FPM is the only party in lebanon i depend on to rebuild lebanon!” intrigued me… What do you do with all the rest? Expect them to sit watch & applause?
I’ll let you in on a small secret: I expect our governments (this the next & ma baad the next) to guide Lebanon rebuilding itself.
Dear George,
We don’t need to be living in lebanon to know what is going on. Thanks to internet and satellite TV. We also do spend enough time there to know. The noise pollution coming from the loud mouthed politicians is reaching us abroad, unfortunately.
Marketing ones self as a good person does not make him one. I only care about actions.
Submitting proposals costing large amounts of money without transparency nor checks and balances does raise suspicion. Frankly it’s smells too fishy off the start, so no it should never be funded without questions being answered.
May I just ask you why do you attack the Lebanese Forces when you are trying to defend your (party or leaders) actions?
1st what does the LF have to do with what Bassil is doing? The LF is happy to be away from the “services” ministries and the funny deals going around.
2nd Before throwing accusations at the LF, I kindly ask you to check what year do you still live in. We are in 2012 my friend.You may want to use your own advise and start watching the news more often. and I mean real news not tabloids.