Electricity Bill Before Parliament?... Let the Stealing of Public Funds Begin!

Now that the political thieves have agreed on a bill that is now in Parliament, in a supposed attempt to fix the chronic electricity shortage in Lebanon, I make a couple of predictions:

- Hezbollah and the large and filthy Shiite slums will still refuse to pay their bills, arguing that they are "defending the country against the Israeli enemy", and that they are "a downtrodden, oppressed, and poor community."

- People (mostly in Hezbollah-run areas of the country) will continue to steal electricity from the grid (as the picture below shows) as there is no serious deterrence from the state agencies or security forces enforcing the laws.

- The stealing of public funds will go unchecked - as it has always in Lebanon - by the very politicians who are supposed to protect the funds. Whether under Jebran Bassil alone, or under an Audit Bureau, the LL1772 billion (US$1.2 billion) will largely be pilfered by each of the members of the Audit Bureau, including Minister Bassil, who will also receive kickbacks from companies bidding for the construction of the new power plant.

- The new power plant will be built on the Mediterranean to make sure to add to the pollution of that sad body of water, probably in an area near impoverished neighborhoods whose inhabitants cannot protest.

- Even when such a plant is up and running - assuming ten years of delays and bureaucratic incompetence - there will still be rationing of electricity, and Mafia-run generators in the neighborhoods will continue to impose a second bill on the stupid Lebanese people, particularly in those areas where the Mafiosi generators are intimately connected to the local political boss (who stands to lose the support of the electricity Mafia if he were to allow 24-hour delivery of state electricity).

Hanibaal

Electricity Draft Law Referred to Parliament

by Naharnet Newsdesk

The electricity drat law that was approved at cabinet last week has been referred to parliament on Monday, reported Voice of Lebanon radio.
Speaker Nabih Berri consequently called the various joint committees to convene on Thursday in order to discuss the law.
There was a delay in referring it to parliament because of disputes between Prime Minister Najib Miqati and Energy Minister Jebran Bassil over the phrasing of some terms in the law, informed sources told As Safir newspaper in remarks published on Monday.
The draft law was the subject of a dispute between various government factions.
It calls for dedicating LL1772 billion to fund the establishment of a power plant capable of producing 700 megawatts.
An agreement was reached to fund the law in four installments after some government factions criticized the hefty price of the project.
The March 14-led opposition accused Bassil of seeking to adopt the law without the Audit Bureau’s supervision of the spending of the funds.