The Daily Star- We Want Accountability to launch people's anti-corruption observatory, December 17 , 2016

BEIRUT: The We Want Accountability civil society movement Saturday held a demonstration in Beirut, during which they announced the launch of a people’s anti-corruption observatory, state media reported.
Activists gathered in front of the Central Inspection Bureau in the Verdun District in Beirut, demanding the bureau play a more pro-active role in fighting corruption, theNational News Agency said.
The demonstrators held signs as they shouted slogans against the embezzlement of public funds and corruption in state institutions.
“Where is the justice system that does not indict the head of the Central Inspection Bureau for failing to do his job?” one sign asked.
In a speech during the protest, activist lawyer Wasef al-Harakeh announced that the campaign will soon launch a people’s anti-corruption observatory.
The observatory “will provide a comprehensive framework and specific mechanisms for holding the corrupt accountable,” he said.
We Want Accountability has organized several protests over corruption and the lack of transparency in public affairs since 2015.
The group started gaining broad attention after their call to hold Interior MinisterNouhad Machnouk and security officers accountable for the excessive violence by police against protesters during a You Stink movement protest over the 2015 garbage crisis.

Source & Link : The Daily Star

The Daily Star - Qortbawi suspends judges amid efforts to limit corruption, July 28 2012

By Youssef Diab

BEIRUT: Four judges have been suspended from their posts and another 10 are being investigated for other types of misbehavior, Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi said Friday.

Qortbawi was speaking to a news conference to outline his ministry’s achievements over the last 13 months since his assuming the portfolio.

“My personal preference is to work silently,” Qortbawi said, adding that he had called the news conference to allow the public a chance to monitor his ministry’s achievements.

Qortbawi discussed a range of issues, from legislative reform to prison administration, as well as anti-corruption efforts.

He said four judges had been suspended for suspected wrongdoing, and pledged that the judiciary’s Disciplinary Council would follow through with harsh measures in the 10 other cases it was now investigating.

Judicial sources said the judges suspended were involved in cases ranging from bribery to ethical misconduct.

Qortbawi asked the public not to “generalize” about judicial corruption, which he said would be unfair to the country’s many honest judges, and pledged to not be selective in anti-corruption efforts.

“We don’t just want to get the small ones, but the big ones too,” he said.

A hefty salary raise for the country’s judges, which took effect late last year, was “necessary and fundamentally important” in helping magistrates shore up their financial conditions, which many have blamed for corruption in the past.

Another component of the minister’s efforts to boost the standing and performance of the judiciary involves a standardized evaluation form to monitor each member of the bench.

Qortbawi said he hoped the Higher Judicial Council and other components of the judiciary would endorse the form he has proposed or otherwise suggest modifications.

“This is so that every judge, from the moment he graduates from the Judicial Studies Institute, will have an evaluation form, which can be relied on when making judicial appointments,” Qortbawi said.

However, no progress has been made on resolving a political dispute between President Michel Sleiman and Qortbawi’s Free Patriotic Movement on appointing a new head to the Higher Judicial Council.

He said he hoped the long-standing dispute would not extend to naming a replacement for public prosecutor Saeed Mirza, who has reached retirement age.

As for other achievements, Qortbawi said a long-standing demand to speed up the pace of trials, to relieve prison overcrowding, had registered slight progress.

In 2010, 63 percent of inmates in the country’s prisons had yet to be tried, while last year the figure improved to 58 percent, he said.

Meanwhile, the transfer of jurisdiction over prisons from the Interior Ministry to the Justice Ministry “will require several years,” and several hundred people should be employed, “trained by specialists,” in order to staff the body responsible for prison administration, he said.

Human rights groups and activists have long complained that the Internal Security Forces’ supervision of prisons has led to mistreatment.

Judicial reform should also extend to eliminating several courts established on an exceptional basis, Qortbawi said, also pledging to limit the prerogatives of the Military Tribunal.

As for the issue of those who went missing or were forcibly disappeared from the Civil War, the minister said he was pushing ahead with draft legislation to establish an independent national council that would take up their case.

He said the plan was now in its second version, with the Shura Council now following modifications suggested by both the council and NGOs active on the issue.

Qortbawi said he hoped the plan would soon be forwarded to the Cabinet for approval.

NGOs and activists have long complained that attempts to treat the issue have failed because the government has refused to allow independent bodies any say in the matter.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2012/Jul-28/182361-qortbawi-suspends-judges-amid-efforts-to-limit-corruption.ashx#axzz21tl8qNMp

L'orient le jour - Corruption remains rampant in Lebanon, transparency organization warns, June 14 2012

BEIRUT: Corruption is as widespread as ever, say leaders of the Lebanese Transparency Association, as they launch their latest campaign to put corrupt officials under a higher level of public scrutiny.

They warned that very little progress has been made to curtail some of the most worrying ailments of Lebanon’s national and local governance, which include nepotism, cronyism and embezzlement.

“Political authorities continue to ignore the calls of civil society in favor of a better governance of the public sector. And political and administrative corruption is as widespread as ever,” the association announced in a press release this week.

“Hardly a week passes without our politicians having the impudence of throwing at each other accusations that could apply to them in the first place,” the group’s announcement said.

The LTA has worked for over a decade to combat corruption and promote transparency in a country that has never had a fully functioning government accountable to its people.

The new campaign hopes to improve on the past by putting new levels of pressure on corrupt actors and the people that enable them.

The LTA said it has dropped its policy of ignoring individual corruption cases, in a bid to move toward “naming and shaming” or exposing government wrongdoing.

The new stance comes from “the absence of will of reform on the part of the political class, which is only in agreement to plunder the public money,” the association said.

LTA board member Ibrahim Tabet said the organization’s new push would include a media campaign, entitled “time to wake up,” that tries to raise the profile of the anti-corruption fight.

The campaign will also include a government petition, a demonstration in front of Parliament, and the establishing of journalism and social media awards to recognize anti-corruption work. The group said it would revamp its Web presence to better connect with the online community.

Transparency International ranks Lebanon as 134th out of 183 countries on their perceptions of corruption index, with a score of 2.5 out of 10, a level considered very corrupt. The country is perceived as the 13th most corrupt in the region.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2012/Jun-14/176776-corruption-remains-rampant-in-lebanon-transparency-organization-warns.ashx#axzz1xnReWakn

The Daily Star - Beirut governor protecting corrupt employees: council member , December 22nd 2011

BEIRUT: A member of the Beirut municipal council accused the acting governor of Beirut of protecting “rampant corruption” in the municipality Wednesday, calling for him to be replaced with a full-fledged governor.

Khalil Broummana said that Nassif Qaloush, the acting governor of Beirut, is protecting an employee who, according to the lawmaker, is requesting bribes in return for performing his job, adding that the governor’s office was doing nothing to hold corrupt employees in the municipality accountable.

In response, Qaloush accused Broummana of being “the biggest broker,” arguing that the council member was criticizing municipality employees because they are not allowing him to carry out illegal deals.

“A number of employees are seeking to take advantage of public service to further their personal interests through bribes and delaying paperwork for people until they pay them money, which costs people a lot,” Broummana told a news conference.

He said the governor’s office is not doing its job in “monitoring employees who seek to humiliate people, disregarding moral conduct ... and the required respect of any citizen who has paperwork [to process].

“We have raised the issue several times but with no results,” he added.

“They are tarnishing our reputation, we who were elected to defend the interests of people,” Broummana said, calling on Interior Minister Marwan Charbel and government inspection authorities to step in.

Contacted by The Daily Star, Broummana said that the acting governor was protecting a corrupt municipal employee.

“Twenty days ago, he [the employee] forced them to pay a LL1 million as a bribe in return for doing his job, and now he tried to do the same thing again when they asked him to examine a [construction] violation.”

Qaloush is protecting the employee, said Broummana. “He [the employee] told these people that he would not serve them unless he receives permission from [the governor].”

But speaking to The Daily Star, Qaloush said Broummana was “the biggest broker.”

“Let him tell us, whom does he represent? Anyway, the municipal council will hold him accountable and all employees in the municipality will take action against him before the judiciary,” Qaloush added.

Broummana called for appointing a full-fledged governor to replace the acting governor.

“It is time to appoint a governor for Beirut to correct [the path] and make an effort to preserve the unity of its municipal council, rather than working relentlessly to rip it apart, along with [carrying out] the principal goal of combating corruption.”

Daily Star - AUB prepares to release report into allegations of corruption, December 16th 2011

BEIRUT: A final report into the allegations of corruption leveled at the American University of Beirut by a former board member is expected in January, it has been announced. In June Nabil Chartouni submitted a report to the board claiming that AUB, and its medical center in particular “is riddled with mismanagement, corruption and malpractice, costing millions of dollars each year.”

The AUB Board of Trustees held its latest meetings Nov. 17 and 18 in New York, and this Wednesday released information on the issues discussed, including Chartouni’s allegations.

President Peter Dorman addressed the board on the issue and said that “the board responded to the allegations when they surfaced by forming an ad hoc review committee consisting of independent trustees, chaired by the CEO of Petrofac, Trustee Ayman Asfari. The committee has hired independent legal counsel and an outside accounting firm to assist in a thorough review of the matter ... a final report to the board is expected in January.”

Chartouni’s report included the claim that a firm tasked in 2010 by AUBMC to review its purchasing processes “was specifically asked by [the dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Vice President for Medical Affairs at the university, Mohammad] Sayegh for any identification of fraud to be kept hidden from staff and university officials.”

At the time the allegations were made public, AUB confirmed that all claims would be investigated.  

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2011/Dec-16/157034-aub-prepares-to-release-report-into-allegations-of-corruption.ashx#axzz1giP8wnct