Berri Lauds Electricity Decisions but Criticizes Slow Rate of Oil Authority Appointments

Speaker Nabih Berri hailed the government for reaching a deal on how to resolve the country’s lingering electricity crisis but criticized it for failing so far to appoint the members of the oil authority.

In remarks to As Safir daily on Friday, Berri said a government session at Baabda Palace on Wednesday “was probably the first productive session for a long time.”

But he stressed that the decisions reached by the government to lease power-generating vessels along with the establishment of electricity plants should be implemented and the cabinet should continue to function at the same rate of productivity.

The speaker hoped that the government would also make a series of appointments of civil servants to positions in state institutions every time it convenes.

Despite Berri’s praise of the cabinet’s decision, he wondered why it was slow in appointing the members of the authority tasked with overseeing the petroleum sector for the purpose of exploring the potential of offshore gas and oil reserves.

As Safir said that the speaker called Energy Minister Jebran Bassil, Minister of State for Administrative Reform Mohammed Fneish and other officials involved in the issue on Thursday to urge them to speed up the appointments in the administrative body.

The government should not wait for the publication of the decree on the formation of the authority in the official gazette to advertise the vacancies for those wishing to apply, he said.

The cabinet endorsed the creation of the body last week but Berri criticized it after saying that both Israel and Cyprus have outstripped Lebanon in the race of gas and oil exploration.