01 February 2012

BEIRUT: In a session marred by heated arguments between rival ministers, and in one case between President Michel Sleiman and Energy Minister Gibran Bassil, the Cabinet agreed Tuesday to renew contracts with mobile operators mtc touch and Alfa for one more year after the firms approved the Telecoms Ministry’s amendments to the terms and size of profits.

Only four ministers – three from Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt’s parliamentary bloc and Economy Minister Nicholas Nahhas – expressed reservations about the new revised contract, while the rest voted in favor.

Telecoms Minister Nicholas Sehnaoui was authorized to sign the contracts with the two firms. He was asked to present a table to compare the new contract with the previous pact, draw up a strategic plan of action and prepare a book of conditions for the launch of an international tender to operate the two networks, according to a statement read by Information Minister Walid Daouk after the meeting.

However, the Cabinet session, chaired by Sleiman at Baabda Palace, was marred by a heated argument between Bassil and Social Affairs Minister Wael Abu Faour over Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun’s latest accusations against previous governments. In a speech last week, Aoun accused previous governments headed by former prime ministers Rafik Hariri and Fouad Siniora of corruption and stealing state funds, saying that Sleiman and slain Hariri’s son, Saad, had also failed to take action to prevent irregularities.

Abu Faour rejected Aoun’s remarks, telling Bassil: “He who reeks of deals and scandals, the latest of which was the red gasoil, has no right to speak about corruption and has no right to attack the government and its head.”

He demanded that criticism take place inside the Cabinet and not through the media.

Afterward, another heated argument erupted, this time between Sleiman and Bassil, over the appointment of a new board of directors for the state-run power company, Electricite de Liban, political sources said. The two also argued against the backdrop of reports that Bassil had leaked to newspapers that Sleiman had been obstructing the appointments in the public administration.

According to the new contracts signed with the operators, mtc touch and Alfa must abide by and implement 12 clauses in the agreement.

Among the conditions in the contract are: Implement national roaming across the country; install new mobile applications, 80 percent of which should come from Lebanon; implement and supervise the quality control system to ensure that mobile conversations are not interrupted; and install 400 stations with 1,200 antennas to guarantee good coverage across Lebanon.

Sehnaoui had insisted that 60 percent of the companies’ revenues would be fixed while the remaining 40 percent would depend on the completion of all the conditions set by the Telecommunications Ministry.

“If the companies meet all 12 conditions within a certain period then they will receive the remaining 40 percent of revenues. If not, then they will have to be satisfied with the 60 percent,” a telecoms source told The Daily Star.

Addressing the Cabinet, Sleiman called on the ministers to pay attention to socio-economic conditions in order to prevent political polarization from affecting the country’s stability. He stressed that the popular upheavals in the region should not affect the work of the Cabinet and state institutions.

Apparently referring to what the local media and March 14 politicians have dubbed the “red gasoil scandal,” Sleiman underlined the need to bring corrupt and negligent people to account and to adopt transparency in the ongoing investigations.

Judge Aouni Ramadan, the head of the government’s Court of Accounts, said an investigation would be finalized within 10 days into allegations that distribution companies had profited illegally by purchasing $80 million of red gasoil that had been exempt from value-added tax but made the gasoil available to consumers only after the government resumed charging VAT.

In an attempt to reduce the severe electricity cuts in Lebanon, Daouk said the Cabinet decided among other things to ask a ministerial committee charged with leasing power-generating vessels to present its report within a week.

Daouk said the issue of telecoms data was had not been discussed and had been postponed to another session.

Sehnaoui, currently at the center of a heated controversy for refusing to provide security services with telephone communications information, said Monday he would bring up the issue of telecoms data at Tuesday’s Cabinet session so that the government can decide on the matter, according to sources close to the minister.

Recent leaks of an alleged plot to assassinate a high-level security official, possibly head of the Internal Security Forces’ Information Branch, Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan, have highlighted the issue of so-called “telecoms data,” which enables the tracking of telephone communications.

Meanwhile, Hariri’s parliamentary Future bloc criticized Sehnaoui Tuesday for refusing to provide security agencies with telecoms data, saying the minister’s action might jeopardize the country’s security. – With additional reporting by Nafez Qawas

Copyright The Daily Star 2012.