MP Wannous: Bassil is “a disaster” for Lebanon’s electricity

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March 14 MP Badr Wannous said on Tuesday that Energy Minister Gebran Bassil is “a disaster” for Lebanon’s electricity.

“No one is more keen on the electricity proposal than us… but there are some MPs who are working against the law,” Wannous told Sawt al-Mada radio station.

The MP said that he “wants to know” how $ 1.2 billion will be spent on Bassil’s electricity draft bill, which was approved by the cabinet earlier this month.

“The government demanded Bassil determine his conditions in order to execute the project, but the minister does not want to present his plan and wants to spend the funds the way he pleases,” Wannous added.

He also said that he “does not trust” Bassil and called for establishing a committee to monitor the Energy Ministry’s implementation of the energy project.

In a related development March 14 MP Ghazi Youssef said on Tuesday that his Furure Movement bloc’s MPs have doubts about Energy Minister Gebran Bassil.

“We have our doubts about this minister [Bassil] and we publicly say it because he has suspicious [business contracts],” Youssef told Voice of Lebanon

“We proposed amendments for the electricity plan when we realized that the bill presented to the parliament is different than the one approved by the cabinet,” Youssef added.

The joint parliamentary committees discussed on Monday the amendments proposed by March 14 MPs concerning the electricity bill. However, the proposed amendments were rejected by March 8 MPs.

Following a long dispute between ministers, on September 7 the cabinet approved the electricity plan to transfer funds to the Energy Ministry and increase energy output by 700 megawatts.

The cabinet approved earlier this month the electricity plan aiming to increase electricity output by 700 Megawatts.

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