The State Supervisory Entity subjugates the Ministry of Finance

About three and a half months ago, “Edit Inc.” it won the tender for fiscal stamps carried out by the Ministry of Finance with a value of 8 billion and 141 million and 850 thousand pounds to print 163 million stamps, (49.95 pounds per stamp). This tender has raised doubts about its price and technical specifications since the disclosure of its terms of reference last March. At that time, the Tender Department opposed the tender, which provides for the printing of a copy of the stamp using the gravure technique, which is an expensive technique that is not approved by local printers and is often used in print shops. banknote printing due to the difficulty of counterfeiting them. This condition, which was included in the book, despite the absence of precedents for stamp counterfeiting in Lebanon, drove out Lebanese printers to keep companies printing abroad. The Ministry of Finance ignored the objections of the Tender Department and the Press Owners Union to the condition book, and decided to proceed with a tender in which the cost of a single stamp rose from 12.89 pounds to 49.95 pounds, ignoring the financial collapse that afflicted Lebanon and the amount of money it would draw from the Banque du Liban to spend abroad on unnecessary specifications. … unless those measures are due to “deal” needs. These irregularities were the subject of a report issued by the Audit Bureau a week ago, in response to the observer’s letter regarding the expenditure contract with the Ministry of Finance, which ended with the lack of approval of the proposed project while ensuring a Parallel to the Ministry solution that is hard to ignore because it ensures a £ 5bn reduction in the value of the basic deal. It was mutually agreed with the new bidder, the Directorate of Geographical Affairs of the Ministry of Defense.

Al-Diwan frustrates the deal
In the details of the plenary session that the Bureau held with the Treasury before the issuance of its report, it was requested to deposit information related to the reason for the high prices and to try to obtain a reduction from the bidder. In addition, on the same day, an information session was held with the Directorate of Geographical Affairs of the Ministry of Defense, to which the Bureau asked to submit a detailed study on the possibility of printing its tax stamps with the specification of the technical specifications that could provide the security elements compatible with internationally approved measures, in addition to determining the cost of the process. Regarding the rejection by the Bureau of the results of the stamp bidding, it was based on several observations, among which the increase in the cost price and the change in specifications in relation to the contract made by the same ministry in 2015 stand out. to provide 780 million stamps at a cost of 9 billion and 984 million pounds, or 12.8 LBP, which decreased to 11,130 as a result of the filing. The exhibitor is 117 million free stamps. However, after the failure of several tenders during the years 2019 and 2020, the Ministry of Finance began to make requests for tenders, since the price of the stamp on 08/25/2020 reached 27.9 Lebanese pounds. The tender was awarded at an almost double price of 49.95. An indication here is that the winning bidder, at the request of the Office, provided an additional 5 million stamps for free, but their prices remained high despite Finance’s assertion that the reason for the increase was due to the exchange rate. of the US dollar.

A mutually agreeable deal with the army and a saving of five billion pounds.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Defense in the interim government, Zeina Aker, played a key role in presenting two offers to the Directorate of Geographical Affairs in the ministry (the Ministry of Defense has its own printing press and has previously printed the registry entries) : The first is to print tax stamps with changing security standards to meet the standards. High security, competitive price is $ 450K a bargain. The second is to print stamps with previously approved technical specifications, at a total cost of 425 thousand dollars, through the purchase or rental of some equipment, provided that the cost of a stamp does not exceed 19.32 LBP, that is, a difference of approximately 5 1 billion LBP for the successful bidder. The solution reached by the Bureau reached the Treasury as part of the response to the letter from the observer of the expense contract, so contact with the “defense” resulted in the Minister of Finance signing by mutual agreement an agreement to assign the Army printing these stamps instead of the foreign company. Therefore, the Audit Office thwarted another agreement that would have resulted in the waste of more dollars for non-existent needs, and in light of the austerity of all administrations. Among the notes of the Bureau on this tender is the absence of any provision related to how to hold the obligee responsible or the documents that prove their experience and the availability of capacities and machines of the condition book, instead of the requirement that the bidder be registered in the printing union while the exclusive agent has not been obliged to present his agency for the foreign company. Likewise, the Ministry of Finance did not justify the Bureau’s question about the increase in the number of stamps, which went from 80 million annually to 163 million, while the conditions book stipulated a preparation phase of up to 15 months and then 9 months. implementation with possibility of extension to 3 years, which could cause damage to the seals in If stored for a long time. As a result of all this, the Ministry of Finance submitted to the opinion of the Office, knowing that from the beginning it was able to negotiate with the Ministry of Defense to take over the production of stamps by the army, thus ensuring that no money comes out. additional in hard currency of Lebanon.

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