Bassil Remains Mum but Vows Action Next Week over Miqati’s Electricity Offer
Energy Minister Jebran Bassil has vowed to issue a strong response to a proposal by Premier Najib Miqati to build a power plant that would generate 500 Megawatts of electricity instead of giving his consent to tenders won by two companies on providing power-generating vessels.
Bassil refused to comment on a report drafted by Miqati that was circulated to ministers on Saturday as part of the 76-item agenda of the cabinet that is set to convene at Baabda Palace next week.
But in remarks to LBC TV station, Bassil, who is loyal to Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun, said he would have a strong retort early next week.
Finance Minister Mohammed al-Safadi, who is loyal to Miqati, also criticized the Premier for reducing the role of a ministerial committee that was tasked with studying Bassil’s offer to lease the vessels.
Miqati said in his report that the committee failed in four consecutive meetings to reach conclusions and common viewpoints.
Al-Safadi also said the vessels would cost the treasury less than the current electricity production at the Jiyyeh and Zouk power plants.
Although he stressed that he had no political differences with the Prime Minister, al-Safadi said that Bassil’s silence is a warning that next week would be turbulent.
According to An Nahar daily, Miqati and the Finance Minister met over dinner on Saturday night.
When asked about the looming crisis, Miqati’s sources refused to comment but told the newspaper that the Prime Minister’s proposal is aimed at costing the treasury less and serving the public interest.
They reiterated that each side has the right to express its opinion during the cabinet session at Baabda palace on Wednesday, leaving it to the government to take the final decision.
As for Ghazi al-Aridi, who is loyal to Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat, told An Nahar that the situation is no longer tolerable as the scorching heat of the summer season approaches.
He described the state as “disintegrating” over the inability to take major decisions on the electricity crisis.
“Everything has become corrupt as you can see in the foodstuff and medical products” discovered throughout Lebanon, al-Aridi said without announcing the stance that ministers loyal to Jumblat would take at the cabinet session on Wednesday.
In the six-page report that Miqati proposed, he said the establishment of the power plant takes a year and would cost maximum 480 million dollars for at least a 25-year service to generate 500 Megawatts of electricity.
He underestimated the ability of the companies that won the tenders of the power-generating vessels to provide the same amount of energy at a lower cost.
The Turkish KARADENIZ firm would generate 180 Megawatts of electricity costing the treasury in a five-year period 429 million dollars without the expenses of the fuel oil, the report said.
It added that the offer of WALLER MARINE, an American company, lies in providing the same amount of energy at the cost of 427 million dollars for the same period.
Miqati has hinted that a cabinet minister was a partner in the Turkish company while another was a partner in the American firm, ministerial sources told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Sunday.
The report hinted that the Prime Minister was refusing the leasing of the vessels over attempts by Bassil to grant prerogatives rather than focusing on efficiency.
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