Projects Funded by World Bank Loans on Hold due to Parliament Paralysis

A number of projects in Lebanon that are being funded by loans from the World Bank have been put on hold because of the obstruction of legislation at parliament, reported al-Joumhouria newspaper on Wednesday.

Vice President of the World Bank for the Middle East and North Africa Hafez Ghanem revealed that the organization's projects in Lebanon are worth 1.1 billion dollars.

Only half of them have been implemented however due to the current state at parliament, he explained.

“We have not been able to implement half of these plans, worth 550 million dollars, because they need parliament's approval,” he stated.

Ghanem had recently visited Lebanon and relayed these concerns to Prime Minister Tammam Salam.

The two officials discussed ways to resolve this problem “in order to implement these projects in a manner that may allow us to begin with new ones.”

The vacuum in the presidency is having a crippling effect on the parliament due to some Christian blocs' decision to boycott sessions.

On Monday, Speaker Nabih Berri warned that boycotting the session would lead to chaos in the country, accusing “those who are obstructing legislation on the pretext of presidential vacuum are also boycotting the elections sessions.”

MPs failed on several occasions to elect a new head of state over lack of quorum. President Michel Suleiman's term ended in May without the election of a successor.

Hizbullah and Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun's Change and Reform bloc have been boycotting electoral sessions due to a disagreement with the March 14 camp over a compromise presidential candidate.

Berri called on them to head to the parliament and elect a new head of state to end the “vortex.”

The speaker stressed that the “parliament and the cabinet are not responsible for the presidential vacuum... they cause diseases and we're seeking the remedy... this is the truth.”

M.T.

H.K.