Lebanese Ministry of Information
The Cabinet is set to meet this week to discuss some 92 items and follow up on the government’s controversial electricity reform plan, ministerial sources said yesterday.
Set to be chaired by President Michel Aoun at Baabda Palace at 11 a.m. Wednesday, the meeting will be the first since the country’s top leaders agreed in the so-called Baabda Document 2017 on June 22 on a road map to revive the functions of the executive and legislative branches following months of paralysis caused by discord over a new electoral law.
With the electricity issue being the first item on the agenda, the Cabinet is expected to discuss a report to be presented by Energy Minister Cesar Abi Khalil based on the report he had received from the government Tenders Department concerning his plan to lease two power barges to increase electricity supply over the summer.
The Cabinet last month referred Abi Khalil’s plan to lease two power barges to the Central Inspection Bureau’s Tenders Department after it drew opposition from Speaker Nabih Berri, the Lebanese Forces – the Free Patriotic Movement’s ally – the Kataeb Party and the Marada Movement. The plan raised questions over whether Abi Khalil, who represents the FPM, had overstepped his jurisdiction to carry out the bidding process without the Tenders Department and whether the large sums involved required the scrutiny of the government body. The other important item on the Cabinet agenda is a draft law calling for raising the retirement age of ambassadors to 68.
Should this draft law be approved, it might lead to a challenge by Grade 1 civil servants, who would demand to be treated the same by raising the retirement age of all Grade 1 employees, including military personnel, similar to what happened when the retirement age was raised for the judicial corps.
Other topics on the agenda include one calling for the amendment of the publications law pertaining to the Journalists’ Union, the union’s membership conditions and its functions, the creation of a compensation fund for the journalists and the formation of a disciplinary council.
Other items call for approving financial allocations for official departments and issuing licenses for the building of new colleges.
Ministerial sources said that the Cabinet is likely to discuss the Lebanese Army’s pre-emptive strike against terrorist groups in two Syrian refugee encampments in the northeastern town of Arsal on the border with Syria last Friday. In the operation, during which the Army detained some 360 militant suspects, five suicide bombers blew themselves up, killing one refugee girl and wounding seven soldiers.
Some ministers might demand that the Lebanese government contact the Syrian government to deal with this thorny issue, or militants holed up on the outskirts of Arsal, threatening the town and neighboring villages.
In line with the implementation of the Baabda Document, a ministerial source said that the next Cabinet session on July 12 would approve some key appointments to fill a number of vacant Grade 1 posts.
Among the anticipated appointments is the naming of a judge as governor of Mount Lebanon, replacing Fouad Fleifel, who was appointed the Cabinet’s secretary-general, the source said.
The Cabinet will also discuss the appointment of a new director-general of the state-run TV channel Tele Liban, a new director of the National News Agency, members of the National Media Council, a director-general of the Economic Council, as well as a number of heads and members of boards of directors in government hospitals, the source added. The source did not rule out the possibility of these key appointments taking place in the framework of consensus among the main parties making up the government, with each side proposing names of candidates belonging to its own sect.
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