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Rula Ibrahim wrote in Al-Akhbar: In such a precedent that opens the door to end the phase of non-accountability of ministers financially, the Audit Office issued a decision to fine the former minister, Muhammad Al-Safadi. , after it was discovered that he wasted public money on an unenforceable commitment. Safadi was laying the foundation stone for a project in which the Bidding Department confirmed a defect, and the result, after 12 years, was that no stone was added to the foundation stone, despite all the money spent.
The Audit Office issued a resolution on 9/25/2020 forcing the former Minister of Public Works and Transport, Muhammad Safadi, to pay a fine of two million and 500 thousand Lebanese pounds in accordance with the provisions of article 60 of the Organization Law from the Audit Office, in addition to a fine equivalent to three months’ salary calculated on the basis of the salary he received when he was minister. The violation is related to the award of a project for the construction of bridges in the Al-Bahsas – Tripoli area, based on preliminary maps and before completing their study, with their prior knowledge that the project cannot be implemented. This circumvention of administrative and legal procedures to approve agreements and waste public funds has become an approach followed by most of those in charge of state administrations. With a slight difference, successive ministers have used their immunities to escape accountability and hold lower-ranking officials accountable by using them as a scapegoat for their corruption. Hence the importance of this exceptional decision, the first of its kind in the history of the Audit Office, even 12 years after the infringement! Despite the small amount of the fine, the importance of what happened is that it constitutes an opportunity to build a legal framework that can be used to hold ministers financially responsible, and that the constitutional immunity that prevents the minister’s trial is not invoked except before the Supreme Council to judge presidents and ministers. Al-Safadi’s case may become a prelude to a breakthrough in this field, as his file could be an introduction to opening more similar files. As for why Safadi and not others? Relevant sources say: “This file has been transferred from the Central Inspectorate for years, and has lain dormant since then until the staff of the Office found what authorizes them to hold the Minister responsible according to the laws that organize the Office and strictly so that the accused cannot annul or withdraw it with the help of his immunity or the lack of jurisdiction of the apparatus. Who wants to be held accountable?».
Safadi’s accountability path began on 4/9/2020, based on a decision issued by the Office (239 / QR) within the framework of judicial supervision of employees. In it, he asked: Safadi and engineers Joseph Bou Samra, Hassan Khondi and Imad Hajj Shehadeh to state their defense of the violation attributed to them within 60 days, which indeed happened.
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