Lebanon Audit Bureau is set to reject the “ Beirut airport deal”, report

Al-Jadeed TV reported the following on Wednesday

“the Audit Bureau is close to issuing its decision to reject the airport deal and subject it to the Public Procurement Authority in preparation for conducting a public tender.”

The so called airport deal calls for constructing a $122 million terminal at Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport and to be operated by a leading Irish airport company when it’s completed in four years, officials said on Monday.

The contract was questioned by Lebanon’s Audit Bureau on Friday . It sent a memo to caretaker Public Works and Transport Minister Ali Hamiya, asking him for information about the project following an uproar in the country over the issue.

The Bureau asked Hamiya whether the public procurement law, the public-private partnership law and other laws have been respected. It also asked whether a public tender had been organized and whether structural, environmental and economic studies had been conducted.

Last June Hamiya, who represents Speaker Nabih Berri in the cabinet ( a close ally of Hezbollah) announced that Lebanon will soon launch an international tender for the construction of a new terminal at the country’s only international airport in Beirut, 

But Hamiya told reporters that the cost will be $70 million

All of a sudden the price jumped to $122 million dollars which prompted the uproar.

Many Lebanese MPS questioned the issue 

According Hamiya the Irish company (DAA) that was contracted to build the terminal will also end up operating it once completed which added to the uproar and confusion in Lebanon because this could create a conflict with the current Lebanese management of the airport.

Flagrant violation

MP Mark Daou , one of the newly elected reform and change MPS commented , in a statement on social media, that “contracting Beirut Airport by mutual consent is a flagrant violation of the Public Procurement Law, which nullifies any other provision that contradicts the principle of transparency of tenders and auctions through the Public Procurement Authority,” considering that “what the Ministry of Works has done contracting for more than 25 years a building and real estate within the Beirut airport campus is in itself a huge violation ”?

Hamiya responded to the question of finances on Wednesday in a press conference, which he held jointly with airport director Fadi Hassan. At the conference, he presented the reasons, objectives, cost and timeline of the project.

The real controversy over the airport’s expansion reportedly stems from concerns over the legality of the project itself.

Hamiya has reportedly promised the Irish company all the profits generated by this second terminal until 2052.