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,
Saturday, May 15, 2010
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.
Friday, May 14, 2010
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!
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!
Sunday, April 25, 2010
One Question, Your Excellency - Ministry of Environment
4/25/2010
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.
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
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
Friday, April 23, 2010
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
Thursday, April 22, 2010
ONE QUESTION, YOUR EXCELLENCY - MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE
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
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