One Question Dr. Hassan Mneimneh

Dear Mr. Traboulsi,

Thank you for answering promptly yesterday.

I have thought a great deal, since yesterday, about the way I should put forward my questions because there are so many of them.

Education covers such a vast field of activities. Unless one follows a systematic approach one can get easily lost with so many problems to solve.

Fortunately Minister Mneimne has realized this fact and has developed his National Education Plan to cover all the main subjects in an orderly way. He has identified ten basic subjects and sixty-two specific objectives to realize during the next five years. Allow me to list them below because I believe that they represent the entire work program of the Ministry.

1. Early childhood education – Five objectives
2. Improving retention and achievement – Six objectives
3. Developing infrastructure – Five objectives
4. Professionalizing the teaching workforce – Seven objectives
5. Modernizing school management – Six objectives
6. Assessing Education and developing curriculum – Seven objectives
7. Citizenship education – Four objectives
8. ICT – Information communication Technology – Four objectives
9. National qualification network – Three objectives
10. Institutional development –Eleven objectives

Now this is the Program. What about the Execution?

As you will agree with me, Execution has always been the problem in Lebanon’s public Administration.

Out of the sixty two objectives, Minister Mneimne has identified twenty six initiatives that were planned to be started in 2010.

I intend asking Minister Mneimne every day one question about each of these initiatives, starting on the first of January. This means that by the end of January 2011 all the questions will have been asked regarding the year 2010 that has nearly ended.

What we shall need to know is:

1) Has this initiative been effectively started in 2010?
2) If not, why not?
3) What percentage of the programmed work regarding this initiative has been accomplished?
4) What were the results obtained?
5) What were the obstacles encountered and how do you plan to solve them in the future?
6) In retrospect, was the initiative justified or should it be changed or modified?
7) How can the citizens help the Ministry achieve their target regarding this particular initiative?

My questions will also be published on my blog “One Question, Mr. Minister” that everyone can access at http://www.questionsfromcpi.blogspot.com/2010/12/one-question-dr-hassan-mneimneh.html

World Energy Research and AuDAX Resources Announce Oil and Gas Exploration Partnership

World Energy Research and AuDAX Resources Announce Oil and Gas Exploration Partnership
This is interesting.

Your Excellency, what happened to the April discussions with the World Bank about the Electricity Plan?

Your Excellency,
More than six months have gone by since the above article appeared in the Press. What has happened since?
You were right in affirming that a "coherent five year Plan" must be set up and followed up by all the Ministers who succeed themselves during that period:  "un plan coherent suivi de maniere constante sans etre soumis a des modifications chaqque fois qqu'un nouveau ministre est nomme".
But, yourself, your Excellency, why did you set aside Minister Fneich's Plan and why no mention was made of this Plan in your own proposals?
But more importantly, why did you omit to mention the first requirement in that Plan: "updating the audit of EDL accounts that have not been made since 2002 and undertaking a full inventory of all EDL assets and liabilities to date"?
How can you plan to invest some additional five billion dollars without making sure of your base first?
Minister Fneich had estimated at 180 days the task of updating EDL's accounts. If this job had been started in April, it should have been nearly completed by now. The inventory of EDL's assets should not take more than two or three months to complete. Do you agree?
So, what are we waiting for?
Don't you think that the World Bank would feel more inclined to fund the Electricity Project, once these two important tasks are completed?

A question to Minister Michel Pharaon - Relationship between Government and Parliament

Your Excellency,
A few months ago we read with a great deal interest the above article on the subject of the relationship between the government and the parliamentary commissions, as well as your personal experience in that domain.
We are eager to know if any progress has been made in that respect and if you were able to secure more cooperation between the government and the deputies in the matters that are of vital importance to both: Electricity, Agriculture, Industry, Education, Fight against poverty, Environment etc.
Respectfully yours
George Sabat

A question addressed to HE Michel Pharaon, Minister of State regarding the "generator ships"

Your Excellency,

We have read with great interest your opinion on  the supply of electricity by means of generators installed on ships that was proposed by HE Gebran Bassil.
We understand that you fear that this process will use unrefined oil that may be harmful to our environment and increase the pollution along our coasts.
The point that you have raised appears to be valid and important. Could you give us some additional technical details and expert opinion to support this view?
We read recently in the press that the project of "generator ships" was approved iu principle by the Council of Ministers and was due to be implemented soon.
The citizens would like to be fully updated on that important subject.
We fear that, apart from this short article in l'Orient Le Jour, we shall no longer hear about it for a long time.
 The Reform of the Electricity in Lebanon has been the subject of thousand of studies during the past twenty years without any practical results to date.
 This year, we fear that the losses of EDL will probably reach $2 billion considering the price of oil that has constantly  hovered around eighty dollars per barrel.
It is high time for the citizens of this country to be told the full truth.  Their opinions and their demands should be taken into consideration.
We have already suggested to HE Minister Bassil to appoint a member of his staff at the Ministry of Energy and Hydraulic Resources to receive the enquiries and the demands of the citizens and reply to them, either individually, or through a special "Energy Gazette" that should be published every month by the Ministry.
If you believe that this suggestion is appropriate kindly introduce it to the parliamentary commission concerned for consideration and approval.

A QUESTION ADDRESSED TO THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE Re THE NEW RECRUITS

Your Excellency,

We have read in the press lately that you plan to recruit in the near future four hundred and fifty agricultural engineers and technicians to fill up the vacancies in your Ministry.

We were already aware of the acute shortage in qualified personnel at the Ministry of Agriculture and we sincerely commend you for taking that initiative.

At the same time, could you please explain to us a few things about this projected move?

• What exact functions will these new recruits perform?
• Is there a detailed Agricultural National Plan that indicates exactly what the Ministry of Agriculture intends to achieve during the next five year and what role will these new four hundred and fifty experts play in the implementation of that Plan?
• Four hundred and fifty new recruits may cost the State up to four and a half million dollars in salary and benefits. Is that amount included in the 2011 Budget?

These are the questions for which we need answers, your Excellency. I believe that we are entitled to them, considering that we, the citizens, are going to pay for the 4.5 million dollars.

But more importantly, we are entitled to read about the entire Agricultural Plan that you have prepared and learn how this important sector of our economy will be managed from 2010 to 2015.

The citizens of this country look forward to receive your answers, your Excellency

LES DEPENSES DES 4 DERNIERES ANNEES SONT A 100% LEGITIMES

Yes, Your Excellency,

The Budget expenditure of the past four years may have been 100% legitimate. We do not wish to query that point. Our concern is with the huge sums advanced (off budget?) to EDL. These sums  amounted at times at more than 16% of the entire budget expenditure of the State.

You are certainly aware, Your Excellency, that the last audited accounts of EDL date back to 2001. The international auditors who examined those accounts severely critized them in many respects.Since 2001 no accounts, to our knowledge, have been audited. Is'nt that strange?

So, how can we maintain that the budget expenditure of the past four years is 100% legitimate ?
Respectfully yours,
George Sabat (ACMI)

ONE QUESTION, YOUR EXCELLENCY! Addressed to the Minister of Energy, the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of Environment

Your Excellency, Mr. Gebran Bassil, Minister of Energy and Hydraulic Resources

We still await your answer to our question regarding the accounts of the Electricite du Liban that have not been audited, at least as far as we know, since 2002.
What good it serves to make plans for the future to resolve the crucial problem of the Energy in our country if billions of dollars of losses during the past eight years are still without formal justification?
How can you ask, Your Excellency, the Lebanese citizens to approve any future plans if you do not provide them with some formal and audited explanations of the past?

Your Excellency, Mr. Al Hajj Hassan, Minister of Agriculture

We still await your answer to our question about the reason why the Agricultural Five Year Plan of 2005 was summarily dismissed and shelved.
Do you intend to produce another Plan? When can we expect to see it?

Your Excellency,

A SUGGESTION YOUR EXCELLENCY, THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION

LE PLAN NATIONAL D'EDUCATION ET

LA CONTRIBUTION DE LA SOCIETE CIVILE

A L'EXECUTION DE CE PLAN

Nous proposons au Ministere de l'Education d'appliquer le programme suivant afin de faire le meilleur usage possible de la contribution de la Societe Civile a l'execution du Plan d'Education Quinquenal (2010-2015)

1. Un Plan National de l'Education a été préparé par le Ministre Hassan Mneimneh.
2. Ce Plan doit être imprime et distribue à tous ceux qui le demanderaient.

3. Ce Plan doit faire l'objet d'une étude approfondie par toutes les ONG qui s'occupent des besoins de l'enfant.

4. Chaque ONG devrait choisir un sujet du Plan qu'elle se juge capable de prendre en charge.

5. Un Forum éducationnel devrait réunir toutes ces ONG.

6. L'assemblée des ONGs décidera des sujets à attribuer à chacune d'elles.

7. Les ONGs devront présenter dans un délai d'un mois un plan de travail et un programme calendrier al'Assemblée pour approbation.

8. Chaque ONG serait tenue de présenter un rapport chaque fin de mois (un rapport standard devrait être préparé par le Ministère) indiquant la part du travail qu'elle a accompli durant le mois.

9. Ces rapports devraient être réunis au Ministère de l'Education et un résumé établi le 15 du mois suivant et distribue a toutes les ONG.

10. Les ONG sont tenues d'apporter leur propre financement à ce projet. Le Ministère pourrait éventuellement traiter avec les bailleurs de fonds pour les encourager à financer les ONG, surtout celles qui auraient réalisé le plus de progrès dans la réalisation du Plan.

ENGLISH TEXT

1. A National Five Year Educational Plan has been prepared by Education Minister Dr. Hassan Mneimneh. This Plan has been approved by the Council of Ministers.

2. That Plan must be printed and distributed to the citizens who require it.

3. That Plan must be thoroughly studied by all the NGOs who cater to the needs of youth in Lebanon.

4. Each NGO will chose, among the different problems exposed in the Educational Plan, the one that it feels most competent to deal with. The NGO will then formally apply to the Ministry of Education to participate in the National Education Plan project.

5. An Educational Forum will then be set up to which all the NGOs will be invited.

6. The Assembly of NGOs will then decide to distribute the different subjects of the Plan among the NGOs.

7. The NGOs will be required to present within thirty days a work plan and a time schedule to the Forum Assembly for approval.

8. Each NGO will be required to fill up at the end of every month a standard report of achievement for the work executed during the month (a standard report form prepared by the Ministry of Education will be provided to the participants).

9. These reports will be collected by the Ministry and a summary will be drawn up and published within fifteen days and distributed to all the NGOs.

10. The NGOs will provide their own financial resources for the project. However the Ministry may decide to encourage the fund providers to assist the NGOs whose intervention contributes effectively to the success of the project.

A proposal Mr. Minister

LE PLAN NATIONAL D’EDUCATION

LA CONTRIBUTION DE LA SOCIETE CIVILE

A L’EXECUTION DE CE PLAN

Nous proposons ci-dessous un programme de participation de la Societe Civile a l'execution du Plan National quinquenal d'Education:

1. Un Plan National quinquenal de l’Education a été préparé par le Ministre Hassan Mneimneh.


2. Ce Plan doit être imprime et distribue à tous ceux qui le demanderaient.

3. Ce Plan doit faire l’objet d’une étude approfondie par toutes les ONG qui s’occupent des besoins de l’enfant.

4. Chaque ONG devrait choisir un sujet du Plan qu’elle se juge capable de prendre en charge.

5. Un Forum éducationnel devrait réunir toutes ces ONG.

6. L’assemblée des NGOs décidera des sujets à attribuer à chacune d’elles.

7. Les NGOs devront présenter dans un délai d’un mois un plan de travail et un programme calendrier a l’Assemblée pour approbation.

8. Chaque ONG serait tenue de présenter un rapport chaque fin de mois (un rapport standard devrait être préparé par le Ministère) indiquant la part du travail qu’elle a accompli durant le mois.

9. Ces rapports devraient être réunis au Ministère de l’Education et un résumé établi le 15 du mois suivant et distribue a toutes les ONG.

10. Les ONG sont tenues d’apporter leur propre financement à ce projet. Le Ministère pourrait éventuellement traiter avec les bailleurs de fonds pour les encourager à financer les ONG, surtout celles qui auraient réalisé le plus de progrès dans la réalisation du Plan.

UN GRAND REMERCIEMENT A SON EXCELLENCE LE MINISTRE DE L'EDUCATION

Votre Excellence,

C'est avec un profond sentiment de gratitude et d'espoir dans le futur de notre cher Liban que nous avons lu dans la revue hebdomadaire du Ministere de l'Education que vous aviez reuni les membres de la Direction du Ministere pour leur annoncer l ' accord du Conseil des Ministres pour le Plan Quinquenal de l'Education 2010-2015.

Au nom du CPI (Le Centre Libanais pour l'information publique), veuillez me permettre de vous feliciter pour cette realisation qui, nous l'esperons, donnera l'exemple a suivre aux autres ministeres.

Depuis 2005 nous ne faisons que demander sans nous lasser que le gouvernement se decide a planifier son action pour le developement de l'economie Nationale, le renforcement des interventions sociales dans les domaines educatifs, de la sante et de l'assistance sociale, ainsi que la prise en charge des problemes concernant l'infrastructure du pays (eau, electricite, transports, environnement etc.).

Esperons que l'initiative que vous avez prise fasse tache d'huile et encourage les autres Ministres a vous suivre dans cette voie.

De nouveau, sinceres felicitations, votre Excellence et VIVE LE LIBAN!

One Question, Your Excellency - Ministry of Environment

4/25/2010

One Question, your Excellency!

Dear readers and partners in our faith in Lebanon,

The Lebanese Center for public information, faithful to its commitment to work incessantly to narrow the gap between the citizens and their "Dawle", has decided to start today a new mode of dialogue between the taxpayers and the Authorities.

This dialogue will take the form of some candid and direct questions that we shall address, at least once a day, to one of our thirty ministers and to the parliamentary commissions concerned on the subjects that most interest and sometimes puzzle the citizens.

We earnestly ask our ministers to answer these questions or have them answered directly on that blog or to the following email address: George@cpi-lebanon.org

We hope that this new initiative will serve in some small way to break down the barriers of incomprehension and suspicion that currently separate the taxpaying citizens from the tax collecting Authorities.

QUESTION NO.4 ADDRESSED TO HIS EXCELLENCY MR. MOHAMMED RAHAL, MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENT

Your Excellency,

We publish below some extracts from the table of contents of the 2001 Lebanon State of the Environment Report (LEDO), prepared by the Ministry of Environment and the Lebanese Environment and Development Observatory for the general public. The Table of contents included seven pages and covered the following subjects related to environment:

A. POPULATION AND ECONOMIC SECTORS
1. Population
2. Agriculture
3. Industry
4. Construction
5. Transport
6. Tourism and recreation
7. Energy

B. STATE OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL MEDIA
8. Water
9. Air
10. Biodiversity and natural heritage
11. Soils and Land

C. ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
12. Legal and institutional framework
13. Land Management
14. Solid waste Management
15. Wastewater management

Your Excellency,

From that extensive coverage one can easily evaluate the extent and the depth of your responsibilities. Your Ministry is concerned with practically every aspect of the activities of our Public Administration. In fact, your Excellency, your Ministry should be regarded as one of the most important government ministries.

I am sure that you must be very busy and I would not like to waste any of your time. Allow me though to ask one single question:

“WHY THE CITIZENS OF THIS COUNTRY HAVE NOT BEEN INFORMED OF THE MEASURES THAT THE GOVERNMENT INTENDS TO TAKE TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM OF THE EVERGROWING 500 TONS OF MUNICIPAL WASTE DUMP IN SAIDA?

CONSIDERING THE NUMEROUS AND COMPLEX ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS AFFECTING LEBANON, THE SAIDA DUMP BEING ONLY ONE ASPECT, WHEN WILL THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT DRAW UP A NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL PLAN FOR THE NEXT FIVE YEARS?

THE PLAN SHOULD LIST ALL THE INITIATIVES NEEDED TO DEAL WITH THESE PROBLEMS, ONE BY ONE, THEIR ESTIMATED COST, AND THE SCHEDULE AND THE TIME TABLE OF THEIR PROJECTED EXECUTION.”

As I mentioned in my previous addresses to the Ministers of Energy and Hydraulic resources, Agriculture, and Education, this National Plan will serve your Ministry, your eventual successor and the citizens of this country to better monitor its implementation. It will also serve to introduce some continuity in public governance. Finally we hope that it will encourage the foreign donors and the International institutions to actively fund these projects considering Lebanon’s present limited resources.

Respectfully yours,
George Sabat

A question your Excellency! - Ministry of Education

مشروع الإنماء التربوي

ماهية المشروع

مشروع الإنماء التربوي هو التسمية الجديدة لمشروع التعليم العام الذي أعيد هيكلة مكوناته، تحديد أهدافه وجدولة موازنته البالغة 70.9 مليون دولار أميركي ( 56.6 مليون دولار أميركي حصّة تمويل البنك الدولي – 14.3 مليون دولار أميركي حصّة تمويل الدولة اللبنانيّة)، وأصبح أيضاً يشمل بعض المكونات التي لم يتم تنفيذها من خلال قرض البنك الدولي العائد للتعليم المهني والتقني والذي أقفل رسميّاً في 31/12/2003.

يهدف مشروع الإنماء التربوي إلى: ”تسهيل بدء عملية الإصلاح في أنظمة التعليم العام والمهني عن طريق بناء قاعدة المعرفة وتعزيز النمو والجهوزيّة المؤسساتية في وزارة التربية والتعليم العالي“ تتلائم هذه الأهداف مع الأهداف الاستراتيجية للبنك الدولي الخاصة بلبنان (CAS): ”تنمية قاعدة الموارد البشرية بالتركيز على التعليم العام والمهني“. هذا ما يتماشى أيضا مع ”أولوية الحكومة اللبنانيّة لتوفير النوعية التربوية في المدارس الرسمية في سبيل الإنصاف وتحقيق الجودة“.

ويتألف المشروع من المكونات الاساسية التالية:

1. سياسة، تخطيط وإدارة المعلومات
• الإستراتيجية الوطنية للتعليم
• نظام معلوماتية الإدارة التربوية
• تسويغ النظام المالي التربوي
• التنمية المؤسساتيّة

2. تقوية الدور الريادي لمديري المدارس، القدرة التربوية، وتقييم التحصيل الأكاديمي
• التنمية الرياديّة
• تنمية كفايات المعلِم والمدرِِب
• تقييم التحصيل الأكاديمي

3. البنى التحتية والتجهيزات
• بناء المدارس
• توريد التجهيزات
• البنية التحتية لتكنولوجيا المعلومات والإتصالات

4. وحدة إدارة المشروع


4/23/2010

One Question, your Excellency!

Dear readers and partners in our faith in Lebanon,

The Lebanese Center for public information, faithful to its commitment to work incessantly to narrow the gap between the citizens and their "Dawle", has decided to start today a new mode of dialogue between the taxpayers and the Authorities.

This dialogue will take the form of some candid and direct questions that we shall address, at least once a day, to one of our thirty ministers and to the parliamentary commissions concerned on the subjects that most interest and sometimes puzzle the citizens.

We earnestly ask our ministers to answer these questions or have them answered directly on that blog or to the following email address: George@cpi-lebanon.org

We hope that this new initiative will serve in some small way to break down the barriers of incomprehension and suspicion that currently separate the taxpaying citizens from the tax collecting Authorities.

QUESTION NO.3 ADDRESSED TO HIS EXCELLENCY D. HASSAN MNEIMNEH, MINISTER OF EDUCATION

We address today our third question to His Excellency, D. Hassan Mneimneh, Minister of Education

Your Excellency, allow us to start by congratulating you for the Ministry’s web site which we have visited today and for the excellent updated information about the different activities of the Ministry that is published on that site. We have particularly appreciated the full account of your meeting with the 258 directors of secondary public schools in the presence of HE Bahia Hariry.

It is certainly gratifying for the citizens to see that their Ministers fulfill their duties enthusiastically and actively devote their time to the service of the taxpayers.

It also emboldens us to formulate the same question that we addressed yesterday to the Minister of Agriculture.

“YOUR EXCELLENCY, IN SPITE OF YOUR BUSY TIME SCHEDULE (you attended no less than ten events in ten days according to the web site), WILL YOU CONSIDER DEVOTING A FEW HOURS A DAY TO OVERSEE THE PREPARATION OF A NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL PLAN IN LEBANON FOR THE NEXT FIVE YEARS?”

This question arises out of our concern that the efforts that you are currently deploying should not be wasted, God forbids, if the next Minister decided to ignore them and adopted a new approach. We must not delude ourselves that this has never been the case in the past.

The concept of the NATIONAL PLAN is that, once it is adopted by the Council of Ministers and approved by Parliament, it will remain valid for the next five years and it can only be radically altered by the same institutions that voted for it.

Another important consideration to keep in mind is that this Plan will provide the guidelines, and the yardsticks against which the Ministry’s performance and budget will be evaluated (your ministry as well as the succeeding ones).

A further usefulness of the Plan is that, provided Civil Society is invited to participate in its formulation, the implementation of the Plan will not be met by the same popular agitation and troubles that we unfortunately witness today. If the syndicates of public and private teachers are invited to take an active part in the elaboration of the Plan they will be less likely to protest later when this Plan is put into execution.

I do not know if, like in the case of the Ministry of Agriculture, a National Educational Plan has already been prepared by your predecessors.Is the Educational Development Project that we have reproduced from the Ministry's site a Plan or just a Strategy? If it is a detailed Plan  please inform us if you intend to update it and publish it after its adoption by the Council of Ministers and Parliament.

Respectfully yours,

George Sabat

ONE QUESTION, YOUR EXCELLENCY - MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE

http://www.questionsfromcpi.blogspot.com




4/21/2010

One Question, your Excellency!

Dear readers and partners in our faith in Lebanon,



The Lebanese Center for public information, faithful to its commitment to work incessantly to narrow the gap between the citizens and their "Dawle", has decided to start today a new mode of dialogue between the taxpayers and the Authorities.

This dialogue will take the form of some candid and direct questions that we shall address, at least once a day, to one of our thirty ministers and to the parliamentary commissions concerned on the subjects that most interest and sometimes puzzle the citizens.

We earnestly ask our ministers to answer these questions or have them answered directly on that blog or to the following email address: George@cpi-lebanon.org

We hope that this new initiative will serve in some small way to break down the barriers of incomprehension and suspicion that currently separate the taxpaying citizens from the tax collecting Authorities.

QUESTION NO.2 ADDRESSED TO HIS EXCELLENCY D. HUSSEIN AL HAJJ HASSAN, MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE

Today our question number two is addressed to his Excellency, D. Al Hajj Hassan, Minister of Agriculture. This question concerns the Lebanese Agricultural Plan and is presented in two parts:

1) YOUR EXCELLENCY, WILL YOU KINDLY TELL US WHY THE AGRICULTURAL PLAN THAT WAS PREPARED BY THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE IN 2005 AND SIGNED BY H.E. ALY HASSAN EL KHALIL HAS NEVER SEEN THE LIGHT OF DAY AND AS A RESULT HAS NEVER BEEN IMPLEMENTED?


2) YOUR EXCELLENCY, WILL YOU KINDLY TELL US WHY THIS PLAN CANNOT BE NOW RECOVERED FROM THE ARCHIVES, UPDATED AND PRESENTED TO THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS FOR APPROVAL?

In fact we wish to know why the Lebanese Government has wasted a great deal of the taxpayer’s money (our money, your Excellency) and all the assistance that was provided by the FAO and other organizations like LEDO to prepare a very useful document of seventy eight pages only to ignore it later and let it fill up with dust on the archive shelves of the Ministry of Administrative Reform and in your Ministry? By the way, according to this Plan we were supposed to study and plan the execution of 316 lakes (bouhairas) of various sizes during the period 2005-2010. How many were studied in effect, your Excellency?

Surely, your Excellency, this is a very simple question that should not be so hard to answer.

Why can’t we dust up that Plan, and identify the parts of it that may have been (mistakenly?) executed since 2005? Why can’t we update this Plan to cover the period from 2010 to 2015?

This way, your Excellency, you will be able to identify and inform the citizens what parts of that Plan were executed during your mandate. But more importantly you will be able to hand over a guiding document to your successor who will assume the responsibility to carry out his mission more effectively.

Your colleague, H.E. Gebran Bassil, Minister of Energy and Hydraulic Resources recognized yesterday,
according to l’Orient Le Jour, the need for some well thought out planning for his ministry. We are sure that the Ministry of Agriculture is also in dire need of the same kind of planning, if not more.

We should not, every time that a new Minister takes over, have a new plan studied and prepared all over again. The current five year plan should be updated and amended, whenever necessary, but it should not be discarded and ignored altogether, otherwise there will be no CONTINUITY in the action of the government and the partnership between the citizens and the Authorities.

We look forward to hear from you on this Blog or in our email box at George@cpi-lebanon.org

Respectfully yours,

George Sabat

E-mail: ministry@agriculture.gov.lb

One Question, your Excellency! - Ministry of Energy and Hydraulic Resources.

Click to enlarge

Dear readers and partners in our faith in Lebanon,

Introduction

The Lebanese Center for public information, faithful to its commitment to work incessantly to narrow the gap between the citizens and their "Dawle", has decided to start today a new mode of dialogue between the taxpayers and the Authorities.

This dialogue will take the form of some candid and direct questions that we shall address, at least once a day, to one of our thirty ministers and to the parliamentary commissions concerned on the subjects that most interest and sometimes puzzle the citizens.

We earnestly ask our ministers to answer these questions or have them answered directly on that blog or to the following email address: George@cpi-lebanon.org

We hope that this new initiative will serve in some small way to break down the barriers of incomprehension and suspicion that currently separate the taxpaying citizens from the tax collecting Authorities.

1.- One Question, your Excellency!

Our question today is addressed to HE the Minister of Energy and Hydraulic Resources, Gebran Bassil and concerns, as one would have guessed, the problem of the electricity.

Minister Bassil, we shall not beat about the bush. We are already aware of the myriad of challenges that you currently face in this ministry and their huge negative impact on the economy of our country.

We have only one question in mind:

 “ WHY THE ACCOUNTS OF THE ELECTRICITE DU LIBAN FOR THE YEARS 2002 TO 2009 HAVE NOT BEEN AUDITED AND PUBLISHED, IN SPITE OF THE URGENT RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE  PARIS III FUNDERS SINCE 2006?"

When the citizens realize that the losses sustained by EDL in 2009 represented over seventeen per cent of all the taxes that they paid during that year, one cannot blame them for asking how and why these vast sums were lost.

The answer to this question can only come from the report of internationally accredited auditors who were specially appointed more than four years ago to perform this assignment.

Minister Bassil, we are very grateful for the immense efforts that you are deploying to solve the thousand and one problems that afflict EDL. We also appreciate that you are presently one of the few ministers to openly recognize the need for a FIVE YEAR PLAN for your Ministry, a plan that the citizens should be made aware of and approve. More importantly that Plan will also serve as a benchmark, a guideline and a yardstick to assist the future Energy ministers in their task. It will allow the citizens to monitor the implementation of that Plan during the next five years. When will your Plan be ready and when will the citizens be allowed to read it in extenso?

But we still insist on knowing why the EDL accounts have not been audited since 2001 and when it is expected that they will be? Unless this is done the heavy contribution to EDL losses reported in the Public Finance Monitor published every year by the Ministry of Finance will remain unexplained and unrelated.

I wish to quote one example that recently puzzled the experts. In 2009 the EDL loss contribution went down by 7% compared to 2008. During that same period the average price of crude oil in 2009 fell by 41%.

Only independently audited accounts can provide the answer to that puzzle.

Sincerely yours

George Sabat