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The Minister of Public Works and Transport in the interim government, Dr. Michel Najjar, held a press conference this afternoon at the ministry, in the presence of the Director General of Civil Aviation, Ing. Fadi Al-Hassan, and the President of the Board Director of the “Alf Med” Group in charge of maintaining the designated facilities for the supply of fuel to aircraft, Maroun Shammas, during which he discussed what is being done. The media reported a danger at Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport, similar to what happened at the port.
Najjar said: “The role played by the media is positive because it pushes the speed of movement to do what is required to preserve public safety,” adding: “There is an investment contract for the maintenance of these facilities by of the company in charge since 2016, and this facility that supplies fuel to aircraft is almost 25 years old. ” Needs maintenance. This issue was raised in the previous government, and the Fenianos minister sent a letter about it to the Finance Minister, but the government resigned, and last March 9 sent a letter detailing this issue to the interim government’s Finance Minister, Ghazi Wazni , requesting allowances of $ 5.6 million for support. For the airport facilities, but there was no response due to the circumstances that Lebanon went through, including the Crown and the closure of the airport, and to this day I have not received any accreditation nor have I spent any amount of the ministry’s budget for the year 2020.
He continued: “I waited for the funds to go to the tender department and carry out a public tender for the maintenance of the facilities, but I did not get any credit.” After what happened in the port, a letter arrives from Professor Shammas and another from the Director General of Civil Aviation Fadi Al-Hassan, in which it is indicated that it must be updated, and the book was registered on August 10, 2020, and that same day it was referred to the Audit Office. According to this book, based on the book of conditions that states the need to modernize these facilities, by obtaining funds from the government or the ministry and sending them to the contractor, or through Clause No. 12, which says that it can be requested to the consortium of companies on the ground to carry out periodic maintenance himself in exchange for an extension of the number. Years of investment, and given that the value of this amount is $ 5.6 million translated into approximately 4 years and 8 months, and there is a decision since 1926 that says that no administration has the right to grant any investor for more than 4 years , so I sent a letter to the Audit Office to express an opinion. In this case I cannot contract, these facilities must be modernized and there is only this consortium. We waited and did not ask anyone to do any work pending the Office’s decision, but we were surprised by the speech of the Audit Office on the waste of public money and the refusal of maintenance, knowing that we did not receive any allocation and the budget of the ministry is zero.
“During the interim government period, our authority is limited, but there is an exceptional authority in the absence of cabinet meetings that are taken from the president of the Republic and the state of the prime minister, then we can make a decision or secure credits,” he said . Therefore, we followed up on the issue with the President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, and with His Excellency President Hassan Diab, and we explained all the details in it with all the documents, and we asked to go ahead with the proposal. the ministry of an extension even if it takes more than 4 years to perform the necessary maintenance. Upon receiving the book, Prime Minister Hassan Diab called me and told me that he agreed with the first clause stipulating an extension to perform the necessary maintenance, and will follow up the matter with His Excellency President General Michel Aoun, who issued a Exceptional approval for the extension to be 4 years for the company that will carry out maintenance at the airport.
In turn, the airport chief said: “What was raised through the media about a fuel leak at the airport caused an uproar in the country, and they assure me that there is no fuel leak at the airport,” and added: “The last time a fuel leak occurred at the airport was in March 2019, and we have fixed it on May 2019 Holidays, and the companies brought a certified inspector from the group of international companies classified within the Common Group of Inspection to inspect according to the principles, and he inspected the facilities in the month of 10/2019, and his report was that the oil facilities are operating in good condition and there are no leaks, but he recommended rehabilitating them because they are old. He was 25 years old, as a remedy and precaution, and they sent us a book that contained a detailed study developed by Air Total International within the JIG Group, an agency authorized to inspect this type of oil facilities, in which they clarified that the facilities need to be rehabilitated to a cost of $ 5.6 million.
He continued: “There is no leak, and we are anticipating and rectifying the situation, and today we were able to obtain approval for the rehabilitation. We were not expecting any explosion, nothing that worried us except the rehabilitation of the aforementioned network.”
For his part, the head of the association of oil importing companies said: “The group of companies manages the oil companies at the Beirut airport, and we are not construction contractors, but it is our duty to supply fuel to the aircraft of Correct way, and groups regularly come to inspect, in addition to the companies that deal with the airport, to guarantee the security of the facilities. Our responsibility is to be fully prepared for any emergency, and among our tasks is the periodic maintenance, and the safety of the delivery of fuel to the aircraft. Regarding infrastructure, we have nothing to do with it because the contract stipulates that maintenance is on our shoulders and infrastructure is not our specialty ”.
Source: National News Agency
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