Parliament’s Finance and Budget Committee started discussing two reports by the Central Inspection Authority and the Civil Service Council on employment cases in public administrations and institutions that came in violation to a law issued in 2017, providing for the halting of employment and the restructuring of the public sector.
The head of the committee, MP Ibrahim Kenaan, said on Monday that the final report of the Central Inspection noted the hiring of 4695 employees since August 2017.
The employment rate in the Lebanese government departments is the highest compared to the rest of the world. About 36 percent of the public budget has been allocated to pay salaries, wages, and social benefits.
Researcher at Beirut-based Information International Mohammed Shamseddine expressed his surprise at the recent uproar by the political forces regarding the recruitment of around 5000 persons in 2018.
In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, he stressed that the majority of these employments were done with the knowledge of all the political forces because they received the government’s approval.
Shamseddine added that around 3000 people, out of the declared number of new employees, were recruited in security bodies.
He warned of the attempt by the political authority to distract the Lebanese with the employment subject in order to hide the main squandering streams, which are concentrated in the sectors of electricity, oil, telecommunications, and others.
During a news conference held at the end of the parliamentary committee’s meeting, Kenaan pledged to resolve the issue of employment until the full application of the relevant law.
“We will go through the recruitment file until the end and we will apply all measures permitted by the law. Political blocs should assume their responsibility; we cannot raise the slogan of reform and cover at the same time those who disagree with it,” he said.
