BEIRUT: Beirut MP Mohammad Qabbani accused Finance Minister Mohammad Safadi Monday of going back on his initial rejection of a $780 million contract-awarding request from Energy Minister Gibran Bassil, a move that Qabbani dubbed unconstitutional.
Qabbani questioned whether Safadi’s decision was in exchange for the funding of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. Michel Aoun’s Change and Reform bloc, of which Bassil is a member, had publicly rejected the funding but did not withdraw from the Cabinet following Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s decision to fund it through the Higher Relief Committee.
“We were surprised five days ago that the finance minister turned 180 degrees and accepted [the request] on Nov. 29, 2011, in six lines quickly written by hand,” Qabbani said, as he displayed a copy of the acceptance to reporters during a news conference.
Qabbani said that during the tenure of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s Cabinet, then-Finance Minister Raya al-Hasan rejected a request by Bassil to grant a $780 million contract to distribution service providers in the electricity sector and presented a full study on April 27 this year.
Bassil re-forwarded the request to Safadi, under the current Cabinet, who also rejected it for the same reasons and presented a thorough study, according to Qabbani.
But speaking to The Daily Star, a spokesperson for Safadi said that the minister had signed on the request after it was amended by Bassil, at Safadi’s request.
The spokesperson said that the move had nothing to do with the STL funding and that the funds were allocated in the 2011 draft budget.
Qabbani, who heads Parliament’s Public Works, Transport, Energy and Water Committee, had forwarded a number of questions to the Cabinet over what he called the request’s unconstitutionality and violation of law.
Qabbani said that Safadi had no time to type the acceptance – which was later handwritten on the acceptance – or get the signature of the acting director general of the Finance Ministry in advance, which was also secured later.
“[The acceptance of] the $780 million [contract] along with constitutional and legal violations comes at a suspicious time,” Qabbani said. “Either it is an exchange for funding [the STL] or a rushed measure before the fall of the Cabinet, which was expected to happen on Nov. 30.”
Qabbani said that he visited the Accounting Department Monday morning where he handed a notice to the department’s general prosecutor and outlined the information in his possession. Qabbani called upon the prosecutor “to investigate the matter in line with the Constitution and laws, to inform us about results, take all legal measures and quickly stop the contract-awarding measures.”
Qabbani also said he would file an official inquiry to Cabinet and a letter to the Central Inspection Department to pursue employees who were involved in violating the Constitution and laws on the orders of Bassil. “Clearly, I am making an accusation and I will continue the campaign against corruption and corrupt people,” he said.
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