Former Energy Ministers Reject Blames for Lebanon's Failed Electricity
Lebanon 's two former Ministers of Energy and Water Nada Boustani Khoury and Cesar Abi Khalil held a joint press conference at the headquarters of their political party, the Free Patriotic Movement , on February 28th, with the aim of explaining to the public the "truth" about Lebanon 's electricity, its current standing, past realities, and future prospects.
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In her opening statement, Boustani introduced the successful efforts of the ministry, which her party has been in charge of, that have brought Lebanon "to become truly on the map of the oil states."
She then explained the purpose of the press conference, which is to clarify the 'major fallacies' that were promoted in the media recently related to the electricity file throughout the period in which they, the FPM ministers, took over the Ministry of Energy and Water.
Boustani went on to present the "updated plan" for this sector as follows:
1. The updated plan was prepared by her in collaboration with the World Bank and she received approval from the Council of Ministers unanimously without any reservation.
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2. The updated plan has achieved its goals in terms of reducing technical waste, especially with the leakage of the Mansourieh link, and reducing non-technical waste with the start of installing smart meters and carrying out campaigns to control any violations.
3. The updated plan is not a plan for ships, and there is no room for ships, she said. Rather, it is a plan to establish permanent factories combined with temporary factories. These factories have designated plots of land that the state will provide for free.
4. A factory with commodities is not an invention, she pointed out. The Electricite du Liban (EDL) began the acquisition of the lands of the Silata plant in 1978.
Then, the Kuwait Fund for Development funded a study with the global consultant Mott Macdonald to define sites for establishing electricity plants in Lebanon .
According to her, this study identified priority sites for laboratories, starting with fAl-Zahrani, then Silata, and thirdly Deir Ammar.
After this, France Electricity conducted a study of the production and transport guidelines and stressed the importance of these decisions.
Boustani went on to address points on the cheapest and most suitable locations for these establishments, gasification stations, as well as the ministerial committee that was formed to oversee matters of bidding and evaluation.
She also tackled the long hiring process for the Lebanon Electricity Board. According to her, the file of the final selection of candidates was submitted to the Cabinet where it faced rejection.
"Some parties did not agree to the appointment because they considered themselves unrepresented," she said and added, "We hope the new government will proceed to appoint a new board of directors as soon as possible."
In her concluding remarks, Bustani stressed on her party's good work, stating that its amendments have been ready and in the Cabinet and the Parliament since 2012.
And that her party is "totally against" the establishment of organizing bodies under the pretext that they take the powers of the Minister.
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She concluded: "In summary, years of work have been faced with lies, slander, and a bash at our dignity. Our files are clear and present, and we had hoped that the issue would have been dealt with in a scientific way away from politics, in accordance with the law, and allow for justice to take its course."
For his part, former MP Abi Khalil opened by congratulating the Lebanese people on the effective initiation of the oil and gas exploration process nearly ten years after the start of this path and... the success of President Aoun.
He credited that success to the succession of the "right" Ministers and their teams, and the Petroleum Sector Administration Authority who were able to "overcome obstacles and hindrances" and establish a new sector rooted in professionalism and transparency.
Moving into the main purpose of that press conference, the electricity sector, he blamed their political opponents for the electricity issue, stressing that "political targeting by some political parties who had clear stances in the past" as well as "confessions" have long prevented the implementation of electricity projects.
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He stated: "Today we do not speak in the name of the Ministry of Energy, but rather about the period that we [the FPM] took over. And this is because of the volume of rumors and slanders in covering and distorting the truth in front of Lebanese public opinion."
He stressed that Gebran Bassil had summarized the problem each and every day since their party assumed this Ministry back in 2010: "Low production and increased costs."
He went on to discuss their plan, highlighting a need for "increasing production through new electricity production plants, some of which are funded by the Treasury and others from the private sector."
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His talk, to be brief, went on to be accusatory and slanderous, dictating incidents in political history where particular Parliamentarians and Ministers stood in the way of the FPM 's plan and further hindered their work.
On the issue of behavior and intention of the political class, he went on to deliver several points and statements circulating in the political rhetoric and the media recently.