Other than the "counter": legal or anticipated appointments?



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Rula Ibrahim wrote in Al Akhbar:

The Parchemeter has always been a golden egg hen used by the Future Movement as part of its acquisition of the Traffic Management Authority, which is responsible for operating the parking meters in Beirut. Suddenly, the mayor of the capital, which is part of the Blue Stream, agreed to retrieve this file from the Authority and to terminate the contract with it, apparently in anticipation of the administrative appointments, which are likely to be the only ones in the world. the Movement Management Body of the Free Patriotic Movement.

The Beirut Municipality has unleashed war with the traffic management authority last Thursday by instructing a consultant to prepare a special specification for the installation and operation of parking meters in the streets of Beirut. Beirut. In this regard, the municipality violated a consultation with the Ministry of Justice and consultation at the Ministry of Justice (10/04/2019), in which it concluded that "the Municipality of Beirut is not obliged to renew the contract with the traffic management authority regarding the project of installation of parking meters after the implementation of the project. Outsource them with the body deemed appropriate, but "on the basis of Specifications drawn up by the traffic management authority ".

The dispute between the municipality and the Authority goes back to 2017 after a correspondence of the governor of Beirut, Ziad Shabib, to the former Minister of the Interior and Municipalities Nihad al-Mashnouq, in which he makes state of the "suffering of the municipality", stating that the contract signed between the municipality and the traffic authorities since 2004 expired in 2010. It is automatically renewed by a party (organization). While "traffic management invests public property, municipalities and wickets belonging to the municipality without any legal basis to allow it". Two years ago, the Commission and the Governor exchanged letters through the Ministry of the Interior before resorting to the Legislation and Council Committee, which gave the municipality a legal means to terminate the contract, to allow the Traffic Management Authority to draft specifications for any new contract. But Itani jumped over this "detail" without any justification.

Municipal sources confirm that it is the mayor who insisted that the municipality (and not the commission) prepare the specifications and inscribe the decision on the agenda of the council, regardless of the recommendation of the legislative authority. And irregularities without returning to the body. Nor did the Authority impute to the municipality the operating and maintenance costs of the traffic control room, the operation and maintenance of the guiding signs from the river dog to the airport, the agreement providing for the maintenance and exploitation of the light signals only. This call led the legislator to oblige the administration to respect the provisions of the contract concluded between it and the municipality, to separate the balance of the account of the open traffic department of the Bank of Lebanon and to appoint a delegate of the municipality to follow the execution of the contract. In accordance with Article 56 of Decree No. 4082 (Ministry of the Interior and Municipalities), the Authority receives special funding which is supposed to be paid. However, he keeps and spends all the receipts.

In addition, the city council's decision to commission a consultant to install new meters and operate them raises many questions. The current figures (which belong to the municipality) are still in good condition. Is the establishment of new meters and the insistence of the municipality to set itself the terms and conditions to try to detail a specification on the size of a specific investor? Itani did not respond to "news" contacts to ask questions on the subject, while some members justified the consultative mandate that "the Council asked the body to prepare a set of specifications for six months without any answer ".

For its part, refuses to the sources of the traffic department to receive any request in this regard. She insisted on "the willingness to provide the municipality with specifications" and on the fact that it does not stick to the project but only to fuel the expenditure on traffic lights in view of the Impossibility to increase the budget ". She warned that the municipality's decision to cancel the contract could put an end to all traffic in Beirut and the traffic control room and spoil the World Bank loan under the project ". Greater Beirut Urban Transport Development "implemented by the Council for Development and Reconstruction. She pointed out that "monthly revenues ranging from $ 9 million to $ 12 million are used to pay the salaries of 100 employees, including employees of the private company responsible for meter management, and the remaining $ 4 billion to cover expenses. traffic control room and surveillance cameras and traffic signs, note The Ministry of Finance does not bear any of the expenses of the Commission.

According to well-informed sources, the legal dispute over the "Barkmeter" and its timing is a political explanation. "The steering committee has always been a hen and the Future Movement has benefited since its leadership in 2014 was transferred to Hoda Saloum, a member of the current movement and to Nuseiba, one of his deputies. " She noted that with the approach of administrative appointments, it is certain that this post will go to the Free Patriotic Movement. Therefore, the movement for the future, through the municipality, decided to waive the order to restore the meters in the municipality.

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