Driving your car in Lebanon has never been so expensive. Neither has the government swallowed a more substantive share of the transportation budget from private households. Since the introduction of value-added tax in February 2002, the government’s revenue participation has reached and exceeded 50% on the amount a consumer spends on the purchase of a new car, even in the middle market segment of cars that cost $20,000 to $30,000 ex factory. Data from Lebanon’s ministry of finance (MoF) reveal that on the level of fiscal income, government revenue derived from the car sector has increased from 4.9% to 16% of total government revenues. These revenue streams are a combination of registration fees on cars, excise taxes on imported cars collected at customs, and excise taxes collected on fuel.

The most pronounced increase has impacted fuel costs, where the fiscal burden on Lebanon’s driving population ballooned from little over $50 million in 1998 to almost $465 million in 2002, or 12.02 % of the government’s total revenue of $3.95 billion. Often summarily called customs duties in conversations by tax-weary citizens, excise taxes on new and used cars imported to Lebanon also brought a massive boost to government revenue, reaching $100 million in 2002. From a fiscal perspective, the only dent in recent revenue optimization from the car sector was that excise tax collection from car imports, which last year registered a 21% decrease over 2001, from roughly $126 million to $100 million. This decline in car imports (from $619 million in 2001 to $558 million in 2002) is widely accepted to be a result of the implementation of VAT. However, if last year saw no decrease in the government’s revenue from car imports, it was because of VAT. Of over $500 million, which the government collected from VAT on imported goods in 2002, $127.5 million (25%) were levies on mineral products, fuel mostly, and $58.5 million (12%) on transport equipment, mostly cars. Adding these amounts to the $620 million which the government-generated from excises and registration fees on cars and fuel, the fiscal revenue linked to automotive sales and car usage reached a cool $806 million, 20% of the MoF’s total revenue generation for 2002. Not forgetting of course the vehicle maintenance fees, or MECHANIQUE, which added nearly $86 million to the purse. Driving license fees netted the government over $8.5 million.

The government rationale behind increasing the taxation of fuel consumption and car purchases was, quite evidently, revenue optimization, Chadi Abou Chakra, a tax analyst at the ministry of finance, confirmed to EXECUTIVE. It did not include obvious components aiming at controlling the number of vehicles on the road or reduce fuel consumption out of environmental concerns. “The perspective of the government is to generate revenue,” he said, “by taxing people who make more money than others.” Some of the fees charged car owners in Lebanon, such as the MECHANIQUE fee, are quite low in comparison to other countries, Abou Chakra added, but he could not say if the car sector was generally overtaxed because the MoF has not yet undertaken a study of the automotive sector and related economic activities. For consumers, the most inescapable tax dues in the entire transportation scenario were evidently the petrol taxes. Here, taxation rates differ by fuel type. According to Abou Chakra, the rates also fluctuate frequently because the ministry of energy adjusts them in response to the ups and downs of the oil price to maintain the stability of the respective mandated gasoline prices at the pumps. As a combination of excise tax on fuel and VAT, however, the share of government revenue from each liter of gasoline sold at the service station pump is roundabout 75%, or LL15,000 out of a LL20,000 gas tank filling, the MoF analyst said.

Driving being perceived as daily need by at least two thirds of Lebanese households, the fairly consistent levels of government revenue from petrol taxes suggest that citizens, however grudgingly, paid the increasing charges on gasoline consumption without radically changing their driving patterns. They did not, however, renew their vehicles at the rate of earlier years, as evidenced in the 2002 contraction of the value of total car imports by almost 10 %, after VAT introduction altered the whole equation of buying.

The reason is simple enough to compute. The combination of customs duty, value-added tax and registration fees racked up the cost counter radically. Car dealers say they have to calculate 20 % in customs charges for the first LL 20 million of new car value. On the remaining value of the vehicle above LL20 million, the duty is 50%. Above a base charge of LL5 million in customs duty and excise taxes on used vehicles valued up to LL20 million, the duties on a used car are also 50% on the amount of its value that exceeds LL20 million. Although handsome, the fiscal revenue participation does not stop here. After the dealer has added his margin, the customer has to pay 10% VAT on the car’s value, which now includes both customs duties and dealer margin. As icing on the automotive revenue cake, the buyer faces an additional fee of 6% to 7% for registration – calculated not based on the car’s factory price but the transaction value between dealer and consumer that already includes two hefty tax components.

Based on a dealer markup of 5% – which local dealers say is barely enough to sustain their business – the price for a new sedan that left an American or European factory with a $20,000 dealer invoice thus will have jumped to more than a $32,000 acquisition cost to the Lebanese customer. If the car’s base price was $30,000, the driver here will have shelled out more than $50,000 by the time he turns the ignition. For a car that left the Ferrari workshop in Modena or the Mercedes factory in Sindelfingen with a sticker price of $150,000, one can liberally add 80% as surcharge of that original cost to see the fancy wheels spin in Beirut or Beckfaya. The regime of overlapping taxes has wiped the smiles of the faces of many a car dealer in Lebanon. From over 22,000 new cars that were sold in Lebanon in 1998, the sales dropped to some 14,000 units in 2002, according to figures published by the Automobile Importers Association (AIA). Dealers say an annual sales level of 12,000 to 12,500 units is today realistic in the new car market, and some describe the business as reaching the point where it starts to look unfeasible. It is beyond question that the high taxation of car imports has a strong negative effect on the automotive sector in Lebanon, even as it cannot be assessed with exactitude how much this field contributes to the Lebanese economy. According to Samir Homsi, president of the car dealers’ association, the country’s 35 car agents with official distributor contracts from international manufacturers employ about 2,500 persons directly. Adding to that the importers of spare parts and automotive supplies, plus a vast number of independent small car repair and service workshops would bring the number of people living in one form or another from the sale and servicing of motor vehicles to easily more than 10,000 employees or self-employed individuals and their families.

Other than in car manufacturing countries, the automotive sector in Lebanon is organized only to a very small degree, and even fundamental data on car usage are often broad estimates.

The Lebanese government’s policies of automotive taxes and taxation of fuel consumption, based on the country’s dire need for fiscal revenue, cannot be expected to change fundamentally. But evidence from the fiscal revenue evolution supports the claim of AIA president Homsi that the reduction of the government revenue share in the cost of newly bought cars would not harm the fiscal revenue stream. In an interview with EXECUTIVE, Homsi named the tax and fee burden as one of the main reasons why sales figures of AIA members have contracted. “I believe that if the taxes went down, the volume could go up. Then the government will be happy and the consumer would be happier, because he would be able to renew his old vehicle, which is now polluting the country and creating hazardous transportation conditions through the use of very old vehicles.”
 

We are living in a brave new auto world. Still fairly early into the automobile’s second century, fuel economy and safety features of modern cars have reached levels that make automotive technology appear close to the point of quasi-perfection, where further improvements, short of reinventing the wheel, seem hardly worth the additional effort. A look at the latest auto salon, or report, by professional car testers is enough to prove the point. Up to 10 airbags, traction control and electronic anti-skid devices, on-board computers and self-diagnosing engines, all the way to rain sensors and distance alarms, manufacturers have developed more means than ever before to take the human risk out of the daily driving grind.

At the same time, the choice of designs, brands, and philosophies has reached a degree of diversity against which all earlier epochs in car making pale in comparison and car dealers certainly have the means and profits to make these dream machines available. But even if the painful taxes were taken out of the equation, it appears that between meeting customer demands, the need for continuous improvement of their services and the necessity to develop the Lebanese automotive culture, local dealers are facing a sufficient load of challenges when promoting the sales of their cars. In many ways these challenges are related to the evolution of the car. While the global automotive culture, as set by the small group of advanced primary car-manufacturing countries in Europe, North America and the Far East, has achieved immense progress, it has also undergone significant changes. Lebanon has kept up with many trends but has yet to catch up with many others. Take for example manufacturers, who build cars that are primed for high-tech servicing. With more electronics under their hood than your average home PC, these cars require specialized equipment and technical knowledge that car mechanics of earlier generations did not need. To provide professional service and qualified repair jobs on an ever-larger share of models, mechanics need manufacturer supervised training and regular updating of their knowledge, and workshops have to acquire expensive diagnostic equipment and tools. These make their repair centers look like veritable automotive clinics, but also make it almost prohibitively expensive for small independent mechanics to service contemporary cars.

Lebanese car agents have in recent years made substantial investments to upgrade their workshops and provide the service level mandated by the brands they sell. At large distributors such as Impex, Gargour and Kettaneh, these investments ranged from several hundred thousand dollars to more than $1 million. It is obvious that these investments have to be recouped over years, and some dealers admitted that they still have much ground to cover in educating drivers about service schedules and additional service concepts, such as full-care options where the sales contract covers all maintenance for up to two or three years. Besides the expansion of workshops, distributors need to follow the marketing development of the manufacturer they represent. Numerous agents in Lebanon recently faced the need to invest heavily into new showrooms to comply with the presentation strategy of the respective automakers. Impex is an example of a distributor that just embarked on a $300,000 showroom expansion and refurbishment to accommodate the General Motors strategy of separating Chevrolet presentation facilities and representing both GM luxury brands, Cadillac and Hummer. A related inherent burden for every brand dealer is the dependency on manufacturer policies. Whatever the marque, the agent has to go with product policies determined elsewhere. This can require adjusting to changes of the brand or waiting out periods when an automaker does not supply a model that fits the taste of a particular market if the distributor cannot generate interest in the vehicle through localized marketing and advertising. A brand such as Isuzu has been fairly dormant in the Lebanese marke because the image of its Trooper decreased with the ageing of the model. The rejuvenation of models by Swedish manufacturer Volvo could give the brand a boost in the Lebanese market, said Sleiman Khoury, sales manger at importers Gabriel Abou Adal. But he noted that the new target group of younger customers first has to be convinced of the new sporty identity of what used to be regarded as a boxy, conservative vehicle, known primarily for its workmanship and safety. On top of brand policies and perceptions, there are the relationships between local agent and manufacturer or his regional office to be managed. As Volvo was integrated into the Ford management structure, the channel of relationship switched from a direct link with Sweden to an American connection by way of a regional headquarters located in Turkey. According to Khoury, this arrangement impacted the dynamics of the relationship, when, for instance, it came to pricing policies. “In Lebanon, you cannot erase the human factor and personal contact,” he said, “with the Americans, you feel as if you are losing this human touch.” Dealing with two manufacturers revealed different business and communications cultures, observed also the marketing manager for the Renault brand at Bassoul Heneine, Philippe Leclerq. In his experience, communicating with the French manufacturer was sometimes easier than relating to the Dubai regional headquarters of BMW – a brand also represented by Heneine – because managers in Dubai tended to view Lebanon as they did other Arab markets and did not take into consideration their differences. On the financial side, recent exchange rate volatility between the euro and US dollar has been one major cost booster and factor of uncertainty for importers of European cars. Agents tried to absorb the exchange rate increases as best they could and some reached special agreements with their European suppliers to have prices based on the US dollar, but many importers were forced to switch to pricing their cars in euro.

The market for new heavy truck sales was hit particularly harshly by the euro factor, dealers said. In addition, they cited lower demand for lorries here after the government mandated closure of many sand quarries. “It is a very bad market,” said one importer, “people who want to buy trucks cannot pay for them and banks are very reluctant to provide loans for financing a truck purchase because they fear borrowers will default on their payments.”

Financing options for car purchases are more accessible and have progressed over the past few years, but consumers still do not encounter arrangements that are as appealing as distributors sometimes advertise. With interest rates for a new car loan, based on a 20% down payment, standing in the 4% to 5% bracket as a flat interest calculated on the finance amount and charged at that height for each year of the contract, these car loans may still require a bit of development. Especially in this area of financing, however, a cancellation of registration fees and/or reduction of entry duties for new cars could go a long ways towards improving the attractiveness and feasibility of packages. On a car with a factory price in the $20,000 range, for instance, a political decision for limiting excise tax to 20% and annulling registration fees would easily bring down monthly payments by $100 for a buyer with a five-year finance contract. All things considered, car agents in Lebanon face what one could call a double reality. The infatuation of the Lebanese with their cars is instantly recognizable. However, it may not be quite as inimitable as the international business magazine, THE ECONOMIST, suggested in its 2003 fact book. The publication placed Lebanon on top of the world for its population’s rate car ownership, at 773 cars per 1,000 inhabitants. The assessment appears to be primarily an indicator that even the most reputed business magazines and their researchers are not infallible in economic and business matters. While there are no recent census figures on the number of actual roadworthy and circulating motor vehicles on our roads, Lebanese ministries and planners commonly assume a stock of between 800,000 and 1.1 million vehicles, including trucks and buses, a number that is nowhere near a global record in relation to the size of the population. The last available representative survey of households, undertaken by the Central Administration for Statistics in 1997, found that 62.4 % of the nation’s approximately one million households owned one car, including 15.4% owning two or more. Furthermore, 83.8% of the cars under ownership by the Lebanese were at least seven years old, including 12% with more than 20 years on their chassis. The over aged stock of substandard cars on Lebanese roads will gradually have to be pulled out of circulation if the country does not want to ruin some of its most important assets – namely, the health of the population and its appeal as a vacation target. On the positive side, both the demand and supply should in the long term be encouraging to Lebanese car dealers. Indeed, more than one agency has already shown in recent years that it succeeded in improving its presentation, service quality and even sales. The market here is small but it definitely appreciates cars, and the social environment favors even expenditures that most European societies would frown on. Lebanon’s wealthy – and sometimes the not so wealthy – display a fascination with classy automotive appearances and large engines that seems to know no restraint. And although many manufacturers nowadays have their regional distribution centers in the Gulf, new car distributors here still like to speak of Lebanon as the automobile showroom of the Middle East.

On the other hand, the relationship between the Lebanese and their wheels still requires a lot of improvement. From education of drivers to enforcement of traffic rules, society has not yet left driving attitudes behind which work only in a very small and informal frame. Respect of others on the highway and in city traffic, proper care for cars and adequate disposal of unusable vehicles and the regular pollutants resulting from driving, humane urban planning and clean public transportation are all hallmarks of advanced automobile cultures, and improvements are warranted here in each realm. Regulations and business standards that protect people against fraudulent roadside importers of cars with undocumented problems are as much in the interest of society as of the official car agents. But car buyers and interest groups also deserve to enjoy a market where fair competition is ensured for large and small players. The public have a right to be informed of industry developments, attempts by agents to change customs rates or governmental fee structures, and the real costs of owning and operating cars in this country.

Regarding these issues, the industry concerns of professionally structured automobile importation businesses and auxiliary suppliers and service companies coincide with the interests of their stakeholders, which in the matter of autos clearly comprise the majority of the population. Meeting these industry concerns would also work towards an automotive culture where the pleasures of ownership and driving tie in with the responsibilities of care and respect for driving etiquette, traffic rules and for the environment. The possibilities are here and car agents, like Volvo’s Khoury, obviously agree. “Lebanese car dealers are nice people.”

This year, roughly 1,000 couples, spending between $25,000 and $35,000 each, retained the services of wedding planners, those hardy souls who organize, advise, coordinate and offer a shoulder to cry on. Essentially an American import, wedding planning has evolved from a few scattered operators into a lucrative $7 million niche sector, serviced by a dozen established names.

Planners argue that what they do is not a fad. Whether you are opting for a grand marriage or something a bit more restrained, hiring a wedding planner can often make sound financial sense. One of the main advantages of hiring a wedding planner is that they can provide their clients with discounts on everything from entertainment to flowers. “We can save our clients up to 20% in discounts on high quality items,” says Raya Zahlan, manager of Weddings 4 Life. “People are learning more and more that it is very hard to organize weddings and to remove the stress from the bride,” says Vivianne Ajini of Weddings “R” Us, “it a huge, huge thing.”

Nathalie Rahal Abou-Jaoudé, general manager and owner of Amareyn, another leading wedding planner, agrees. “Weddings for Lebanese people are very important,” she says, “they will spend money on a wedding, even if it means taking out a loan.”

Abou-Jaoudé estimates that about 40% of couples (or in 95% of the time their parents) spend more than they can actually afford. And with amounts of up to $35,000 being doled out, it’s no wonder that they have to go cap in hand to the bank. “But,” Abou-Jaoudé points out, “a small budget doesn’t mean that you can’t have a nice wedding.” Some planners see themselves as artists and Zahlan insists that planning a wedding is “not about the money” – well, not only about money. She and her business partner and cousin, Maya Zahlan, take into consideration a client’s background as well as their budget. “We prefer to plan weddings for clientele from a certain background so that our work is appreciated.”

It is an industry that attracts people from all professional backgrounds. Zahlan admits she fell into the job. “I majored in psychology and education, and my business partner studied interior design.” She points out that the paramount skill is the ability to communicate with people. But how much does good communication cost these days? Ajini explains that it is often difficult to give a clear picture of fees simply because they vary according to each wedding. “We could charge anywhere from $5,000 to $50,000, depending on the client.” However, most charge either a fixed fee or take commission based on the client’s budget (the Weddings 4 Life team charges a fixed fee, while Amareyn’s costs range from $2,000 to $15,000 for what she calls ‘big’ weddings with budgets of $400,000 plus, which represent 10% to 15% of the high-end market).

According to Abou-Jaoudé, there are four main variables that affect the cost of any wedding: the number of people, the season, decorations and entertainment (music, dancers, fireworks, special effects etc.). When deciding on the venue, Abou-Jaoudé says that most halls and major hotels charge similar fees. Cocktail receptions can cost from $15 to $30 per person, whereas seated, or buffet dinners, about $30 to $150, depending on the quality of the menu (traditional Lebanese cuisine, for example, is cheaper than an all seafood menu). Bridal gowns, invitations, flowers and invitations all combine to send the bill into the stratosphere. Not surprisingly, it’s big business and this is good news for the fledgling sector. Abou-Jaoudé says that since starting Amareyn five years ago, her clientele has doubled so that her company now plans about 80 events per year. Weddings 4 Life boasts even higher figures, with 150 weddings per year, 70 to 80 of which are in the high season (May 15 to end of September and the entire month of December). Still, to survive, wedding planners have to be up to speed with current trends and ideas if they are to sell themselves as cutting edge. “We are here to create something new and different for every wedding,” says Abou-Jaoudé. “Our job equals details.” Some of the big trends hitting Lebanon’s weddings this year were splashes of big color and the use of special effects. According Zahlan, weddings no longer stick to a specific color theme, with vibrant hues making their way onto the scene in the form of flowers, tablecloths and other decorations. Becoming increasingly common is the not-so-white wedding gown, with champagne shades making the most waves. Special effects are also no longer limited to fireworks displays – which are not exactly unique here. Now even the first dance sequence can feature a fog machine, complete with falling confetti spread with the use of a giant fan. The end result is much like the couple’s very own music video.

In order to stay on top of her game, Abou-Jaoudé employs a team of 22 – interior and graphic designers and technicians etc – during the high season and admits annual operating costs of over $200,000 a year. “Our telephone expenses alone are a catastrophe!” she moans.

Removing stress was the key factor that prompted Nada Afeiche-Shehadi to hire a wedding planner for her 2002 nuptials at Sursock. “I only had a little time [two months] to plan everything and needed someone who could have everything done at short notice,” she says. She was especially pleased with the party favors suggested by Zahlan – a little cedar tree to represent Lebanon since many of the guests were coming from the United States. Afeiche-Shehadi was also comforted by the fact that the Weddings 4 Life team would be present at her wedding to orchestrate everything at the church and the reception. “For me, it was more about having peace of mind than anything else,” she says, adding that little unexpected perks from the planners, like a guest book and special decorations on her table were a nice touch. So, was it all worth it in the end? For Afeiche-Shehadi it certainly was but she was quick to point out that hiring a wedding planner is not necessarily the best route for everyone. “At the end, it’s really the couple that makes the wedding.”

E: How would you describe Lebanon’s summer in terms of tourists?

PA: If summer means July and August, then summer was excellent for Beirut. Like last year, it was also good for the regions of Jounieh, Broummana and Bhamdoun. Our aim, however, is to extend the summer season from April to October, as in the rest of the Middle East.

E: From where did most tourists originate?

PA: Most of them came from Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. But don’t underestimate the number of Lebanese expatriates. About 35% of summer visitors are Lebanese coming back from Africa, the Arab world or South America. Many of them stay in hotels.

E: Does one good summer mean Lebanon has regained its pre-war status as a top tourist destination?

PA: Since September 11, we’re again the biggest and best summer resort destination for the Arab region. But we have a problem attracting European tourists, even though any kind of tourism can flourish here. Just look at the country. There’s the sea, mountains, clubs, pubs and freedom for women to dress and behave as they like. Lebanon has the best of two worlds, East and West, and so it should be able to attract people from both sides.

E: Why aren’t the Europeans coming?

PA: Lebanon has an image problem. The international media only report about Lebanon in terms of terrorism, Israel and the civil war, even though these ended years ago. We have to change the image, but that cannot be done overnight. We’re talking big politics here. If a certain world leader says a certain group in the country is terrorist, this affects Lebanon’s image, and tourism. We need to change the image to attract a big tour operator who buys 10,000 room nights, like in any other top world destination. Here we generally talk about 10 to 50 room nights, which is too little for prices to really come down.

E: What do you think to do about it?

PA: So far, the Lebanese who profit from tourism have all been working on their own in promoting Lebanon. We’ve suggested that the ministries of tourism and economy, IDAL, Solidere, MEA, Casino du Liban and others cooperate under one umbrella. That would save costs and enable us to make a bigger, better impression at the big international tourism fairs. Secondly we’ve found a niche in the market. From now on, we will focus more on countries like Poland, Ukraine and Russia, as Eastern Europeans are much less impressed by the “propaganda” of the international media. During the second Gulf War hardly anyone cancelled their flights to the Middle East, while some 80 percent of the Europeans and Americans did.

E: How would you characterize the Lebanese market?

PA: Highly competitive, especially outside the summer months. There are just too many hotels for existing demand, especially in the four- and five-star range and there are still another 1,500 rooms under construction. Average occupancy rate in Beirut is some 59 percent; it should be at least 65 percent before further investments are needed. But what happens? As soon as there’s a big conference and most Beirut hotels are full, everyone calls for more hotels, while only 20 minutes away in Jounieh and Broummana most hotels remain largely empty.

E: What are the hopes and fears for the future?

PA: One of the problems of Arab tourists coming back again and again, is that at a certain point they will rent a furnished apartment or buy one. The market for furnished apartments is already booming, which is a big threat to the hotel business. The hope for the future, as I said before, is an improved image abroad, which would enable us to attract more European guests.

E: What should the role of the government be?

PA: We live in a free economy, so we don’t want a government ban on building more hotels. The problem is that the government is badly organized. We all know that. But the least we expect is decent, reliable data on which we can make our management decisions. Apart from that, we would like to see more cooperation. One thing the government can start doing is providing everyone promoting Lebanon with one and the same logo.

For the first time since 1992, IPSOS STAT, which monitors media advertising expenditures in Lebanon, reported a decrease during the first semester of 2003. Previous reports had reflected growth even when the actual market was in decline. In fact, total gross media advertising expenditures in Lebanon declined from $105 million in 1998 to $85 million and are projected to drop by 20 to 25% to around $65 million in 2003. Media TV expenditures went down from $55 million in 1998 (i.e. a share of 52%) to $35 million (i.e. a share of 41%) in 2002 and are expected to decrease to around $24 million in 2003. During the same period however, outdoor (billboards) went up from $7.5 million in 1998 to $16 million in 2003.

The main reasons of the decline of media expenditure in Lebanon, especially on TV, can be blamed on the worsening economic crisis, the high price of TV advertising (resulting in lower cost efficiency by regional standards, which are measured in terms of cost/GRP or worse, in terms of cost/thousand), the escalating price war between various media (reflected in the ratio between real and monitored ad expenditures based on official rate card prices that went up from 3.2 in 1998 to 5.6 in 2002).

The average ratio, which varies enormously depending on the media is, however, much higher than the actual level of discounts given to clients. Indeed, out of the monitored ad spend of $490 million in 2002, barter deals (ads for the entertainment, leisure, media and publishing sectors) accounted for $124 million.

During the same period – between 1998 and 2003 – one can estimate that the average net media margin of advertising agencies (agency commission plus volume rebate, less client discounts) went down from around 22% to around 12% as a result of three factors. First, lower rates of agency commission and volume rebates facilitated by the market domination of regies, representing over 50% of advertising expenditures. Second, is the appearance of media buying units, whose entire raison d’etre is to discounting. And finally, increased discounts to advertisers and the fact that they are increasingly booking their campaigns directly (especially on outdoor) or making barter deals with the media. It means that the total media revenue shared by all advertising agencies in Lebanon will probably not exceed around $7.5 million in 2003, compared to around $23 million in 1998.

Income from production, especially TV commercials, also declined. This can be attributed to the phenomenon of globalization, which has resulted in multinationals using to use more international or regional copy (in our case Dubai). Other factors include the increasing tendency of local advertisers to favor BTL (below the line) activities over brand building and the shift towards outdoor advertising over TV.

The consequences of this decline in revenue for Lebanese full service agencies that rely heavily on their income from media commissions are dramatic. The revenue indexation between high value-added services, such as strategic planning and creative development and execution on one hand and media buying, which is a low price-driven commodity, on the other hand should be broken. It is only by convincing clients that our services should be increasingly remunerated on a fee basis that advertising agencies will be able to survive. The syndicate of advertising agencies should also be more active in defending the interest of its members against the regies, intermediaries whose margins are disproportionate to their value-added.

Ibrahim Tabet is chairman and CEO of DDB Strategies. He wrote this commentary for EXECUTIVE

Lahoud summed it up better than most. Speaking to the cabinet during a discussion on the EDL file, the exasperated president turned to the ministers and raised his arms. “What do you expect me to say when you tell me that $3 billion has gone missing from EDL. I am speechless.”

EDL is indeed in a miserable state. It continues to be riddled with corruption, wasteful spending and mismanagement. By this summer, the company was in debt to the tune of $950 million with little to show for $1.5 billion of government investment. Since 1992, it has lost over $600 million in uncollected bills and another $230 million to illegal connections and technical problems. Things could hardly get worse – or could they?

In August, it emerged that arch-wheeler dealer Ahed Baroudi publicly admitted to bribing public officials on all levels and on numerous occasions to secure lucrative contracts worth around $750 million in the early 90s. His involvement in these deals has allegedly cost the state millions and is responsible for the dilapidated state of the national grid. Baroudi has not been officially investigated; probably because of his threats to disclose the names of high profile officials he claims took bribes. Ahed Baroudi has always worked the shady end of business. His name appeared in the murky demi-monde of dealmakers in 1974, when MEA bought three 747s from Boeing. The American aircraft manufacturer paid $3.6 million in commissions to a Swiss bank account in the name of a Rosera, on behalf of MEA executive (and future chairman) Assad Nasr and other parties working for or connected to the airline.

Although an open secret since the deal was signed, the payments officially came to light in 1979, when MEA sought to buy another 19 aircraft at a cost of $1 billion (the commissions on that deal would have been a whopping $30 million). An investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) into the 1974 deal, forced President Elias Sarkis to call off the purchases, and created a scandal that reached the higher echelons of the Presidency and Intra Bank. The debacle effectively ended the career of Nasr, who had to leave the country, only to be allowed back after much string pulling.

However, one man, believed to be the architect of both deals, lurked in the shadows, relatively untouched by scandal. No one can say whether this secretive character was in fact Baroudi, but those on the inside believe he was the only one to hold onto his share of the fees paid by Boeing in 1974 Ð around $1.6 million Ð and point to the close ties he cultivated with President Sarkis. In 1982, Baroudi was himself famously exiled by Bashir Gemayel after an encounter at Au Vieux Quartier, when Lebanon’s youthful new leader, who had vowed to wipe out corruption, allegedly strode over to Baroudi’s table and gave him 24 hours to pack his bags, telling him, “the country is sick because of people like you.” Baroudi claims he left because the food was not to his liking. Baroudi returned in the late 80s to Amin Gemayel’s Lebanon expecting to carry on where he left off. He found Roger Tamraz and his advisors had become the favored dealmakers. Professionally, the two men were chips off the same block, but while Tamraz sought the limelight and gained notoriety, Baroudi bided his time, working diligently in the shadows, courting the patronage of those in power. It was a policy that paid off. Tamraz’s star waned, while Baroudi fought his way back into the game, recruiting Tamraz’s team along the way. After leaving during the Aoun war, he returned in the early 90s to carve out a lucrative niche at EDL, one of the few ministries not blocked to him. His calling card at EDL’s Mar Mikhael’s offices was his trademark $1 million gift.

In his new-found role as a key player in the state’s ten-year plan to rehabilitate the national grid – one which, among its many aims, sought to convert from fuel to gas – Baroudi set about beating off all other international bids to secure the contracts for the building of the Zahrani and Baalbek power stations, contracts worth a combined total of $300 million.

A senior EDL consultant at the time remembers the irregularities. In a letter to the board of EDL, sent on December 10, 1994, he protested that the 200-page rehabilitation plan was drafted in secret, outside the official framework of EDL, over a period of ten days. He went on to complain that there was no time for him or his colleagues to review the plan, which was, for the most part, devoid of page numbers, figures and tables. In a very sketchy financial plan, it was stipulated that all payments be made to Ansaldo, a company that had been earmarked for both the Badawi and Zahrani stations, even before the jobs had been tendered. The consultant was further mystified by the fact that only three years’ work was outlined in what was supposed to be a ten-year plan, and the cost estimates appeared to have been reached without due diligence. ”This is what we were told to do,” an exasperated colleague told him, when he was questioned about the report. It became clear to the consultant that the plan was imposed and not meant to be contested. The extent of the conspiracy was reflected in the speed at which the plan was rushed through parliament on the night of Saturday, December 10, 1994 (those who are convinced of Baroudi’s involvement in the 1974 MEA deal, point to the same way that agreement was rushed through on the eve of the meeting of the MEA board of directors on May 30, 1974. Baroudi, it seemed, liked a fait accompli.)

Baroudi was part of the EDL deals from beginning to end. After the signing of a $600 million Italian-Lebanese loan (one that he personally negotiated), earmarked for electrical equipment, three contracts were awarded to Baroudi, who was still the representative of Ansaldo.

The first deal involved the buying of new heavy equipment that was later discovered to be used and obsolete. The second was for the installation of $50 million worth of equipment for the Zahrani and Baalbek stations. Through its inside contacts, Ansaldo, via Baroudi, ensured that all other bidding companies never got a look-in. Such was the extent of Baroudi’s impudence that he installed the equipment, generators and machinery before the contract was officially awarded. The third deal was a $17 million maintenance contract, which was signed even though the equipment was under warranty. The $17 million was allocated for the maintenance of Lebanon’s gas-powered power plants – a system that was allegedly 30% cheaper, environmentally friendlier and more efficient. In 2000, after rumblings within EDL, the contract was re-awarded to the Italian company INNEL for $9 million a year, a saving of 40%. INNELÕs agent in Lebanon at the time was none other than Ahed Baroudi. The signing of the three contracts took place outside the supervision of CDR, which was supposed to, according to the protocol signed with the Italians, oversee all bidding, installation and maintenance.

Today, the equipment bought by the government and provided by Baroudi is still not connected to the electrical network, while the power stations require rehabilitation worth $200 million. There has never been any gas-generated electricity from the two plants, which run on a jury-rigged fuel system that has effectively destroyed the operational integrity of both stations. A report compiled by General Electric and sent to EDL on November 29, 1999, blames the use of incorrect fuel for the blowing up of the third turbine at the Baalbek power station. No one is absolutely sure of how deep the level of corruption ran in the ‘Italian Job.’ What is known is that the EDL case, was one of many that went to the very top of Italian politics and implicated the disgraced former Italian Prime Minister Benetto Craxi. In Lebanon today, nothing has changed. Baroudi and his ilk maintain their cover by cultivating friendly relations within political and key civil servant circles at the highest level. While most corruption is a smash and grab ‘career,’ Baroudi has lasted, and has never felt the long arm of the law.

Meanwhile, EDL is in a corner. The excuse that the main problem lies with unpaid bills is as weak as it is insulting to our intelligence. The public might be more willing to pay their bills if they see that EDL is putting its house in order. Maybe when that happens, the collectors will not need armed escorts to carry out their duty.

If EDL is keen to root out graft and corruption from its core, it is going about it in a very low-key manner. Corruption is a chronic sickness in any society and requires constant treatment. As the saying goes, it’s not the man in the fight but the fight in the man. Like Fuad Chehab, who built a state of law, President Lahoud has founded his term on rooting out graft. But such a campaign will only bear fruit if there is collective political support to fight those who rob the public and private purse.

Therefore, EDL must act to right the outrageous wrongs that have taken place in the past ten years. This is the perfect opportunity for a government, committed to showing the people that it is serious about tackling the legacy of a more sordid past. Either that, or those at the very top of EDL must make what would be an honorable and memorable move: they should resign. At least then they would be remembered for something. Executive investigated and published the EDL story in the public interest. Further cases involving Ahed Baroudi and others are still under investigation.

In the academic analysis of economics, corruption is a clear and present danger. “Efficient allocation of resources is the key to the capitalist system,” said Karim Salameh, managing director at Saradar Investment House and member of a new generation of Lebanese economists. “In the textbook answer, corruption cripples because it diverts resources away from their efficient use and directs them into the wrong pockets. Corruption is money badly spent.”

Here is a textbook evil that has become recognized to be a huge economic liability, or as The Economist once wrote in a scriptural allusion, “a worm that never dies.” The best available estimates put the cost of corruption at a magnitude of more than $80 billion worldwide, annually. Other studies by international agencies see the detrimental effect of corruption on Foreign Direct Investment in the hundreds of millions of dollars per each afflicted developing economy.

Unfortunately, what is obvious damage to the national economy and a detriment to foreign investment can look extremely enticing to an individual interested in his own pocket, personal business and bank account. When asked about the current reality of corruption in Lebanon, a politically connected importer of medical equipment guffawed. “How do you think I won a contract to set up a teaching laboratory at a big university?” he asked, describing how most deals are sealed in Lebanon today. “Let’s say I want to buy a satellite. I approach a Chinese, a German and an American manufacturer to get a price quote. I get offers at $5,000, $10,000, and $20,000. Then I call a Lebanese dealer, who quotes $25,000. He gets the deal.”

He continued: “How do I get the authorization? I buy the Chinese one at $5,000 and split the rest of the money with the department head who signed-off on the purchase.”

The high awareness of corruption in Lebanon manifests itself in plentiful individual occurrences of public sector irregularities. Talk to anyone and there is a rumor, a theory, or an anonymous account of how this official has been discovered siphoning money off from state payments to institutions housing orphans; how that ministry, although dissolved, still is paying rent for premises at an annual cost of $350,000; or how this or that civil servant maintains three luxury cars on an official salary of between $370 and $1,000. Whatever damage assessment is offered on the extent of public sector graft and greed, however, is usually at least partly speculative. Political or personal concerns and fears on part of the involved parties make it difficult to obtain statements that allow for detailed documentation of damages. Even the Lebanon mission director of US donor agency USAID, Raouf Youssef, did not want to talk to Executive about its agricultural program, one that former agriculture minister Ali Abdallah has been accused of defrauding. The costliest individual case of corruption damage to the Lebanese economy under discussion is that of Electricite du Liban, which has recently been labeled the cause behind a massive portion of the budget deficit. Finance minister Fuad Siniora was attributed with stating that loans to EDL over the years cut a $9 billion hole in the Lebanese treasury. Newspaper reports claimed in August that as much as $1 billion out of the $2.8 billion post-war rehabilitation investment into the national electricity generation and distribution network had been swallowed by thievery and embezzlement. The reports on the loss making of EDL and the reasons for the public enterprise’s disastrous financial state make for a composite horror story of grand corruption, political nepotism, and petty corruption. Energy consultant and middleman Ahed Baroudi has been named the architect behind the sector’s poor performance in his role as key dealmaker (see “The Italian job,” page XXXX). The sagas of black market sales of fuel oil by the tanker and deals over the construction and maintenance contracts of the country’s electricity generation plants are as close to big-deal corruption as anything reported or rumored in Lebanon over recent years.

However, analysts say the numbers and result figures that are available from the utility do not allow for a comprehensive assessment of the utility’s real performance. As civil servants, EDL management is supposedly accountable to public and media inquiries, but none of Executive’s calls were returned. Minister of energy and water Ayoub Humayed, however, did agree to meet with us at the 13th hour (see “From the eye of the storm,” page XXXX). But another big chunk of losses at the utility quite undisputedly stem from power theft by a large number of individual customers Ð between 25% and 40% of bills have been unpaid, according to various reports. This phenomenon in itself amounts to a sub-culture of corruption, with the non-paying customers to some extent being shielded against prosecution by political players with high levels of influence. The case of a massive share of non-collectable bills and systematic avoidance of paying for the electricity service in areas such as Palestinian refugee camps and the southern suburbs is generally undisputed. It makes for a case of multiple petty corruption through wide-ranging abuse of public services and defrauding of the law-abiding majority. This corruption of the poor does not, however, alter the fact that the part of the population that is most disadvantaged by the presence of corruption are the poor. They are denied the access to services that petty corruption buys in dealing with administration and private sector. What remains not known are the exact direct costs and indirect damages caused by corruption to either Lebanon’s national economy or the business community. The Beirut based consulting firm, Information International, issued a Corruption in Lebanon Country Assessment Report in early 2001, in which it estimated that “one billion US dollars in annual drain may be directly linked to corruption.”

At over 5% of GDP, that figure substantially exceeded the rule-of-thumb assessments for corruption damage to a developing economy. Information International – which described its $1 billion estimate as “a conservative figure based solely on the research findings” – drew immediate and heavy fire for its statement at the time. The most ardent opposition arose from Lebanon’s political quarters but criticism came also from several civil society researchers, who questioned the methodology and motives behind the report, which had been based on large parts of focus group debates and opinion polls. After the reaction to the report, which had been commissioned by the UN, Information International has not executed any further research into the cost of corruption for Lebanon. The Lebanese private sector likewise shows no record of assessing the current cost of corruption either for the entire economy or for specific sectors. The cost of corruption basically finds no mention in the annual reports of Lebanese corporations. Although they agree with the national sentiment that corruption is rampant and often confess to it being a major problem for the country, individual business leaders see the problem as endemic with the political establishment more than with the business community.

Although corruption exists among the business realm, business-to-business relations are “by nature” less corrupt than politics, opinioned Claude Bahsali, an executive with the information technology group IDG Holding and member of the ethics and management committee at the Lebanese managerial association RDCL. “Without being able to put figures, I would say that IT due to its high competitiveness is not as affected as other sectors,” he told Executive (see box). ”I rank corruption as the number one issue in the country,” said Rizk Khoury, president of insurance company Cumberland. “If you want to do anything in Lebanon, you find that there is corruption.”

In the insurance industry, the most obvious cost is legal cost, he said. “When you are in the business of liabilities and there is corruption, the legal costs go up.”

To Salameh, corruption would rank definitely among the top five problems in Lebanon, although he also has no information on the costs of corruption to the nation at his disposal. In his corporate role as manager of the Saradar real estate investment company Eagle 1, he found it imperative to shape the company activities to be distanced from corruption, he said. “Real estate development is prone to corruption, because it is non-transparent. In real estate, corruption poses a problem directly proportional to the degree of interaction between private and public sector,” he said. “But in a real estate ownership situation where existing real estate is bought and managed by a fund, it is easy to minimize the impact of corruption by maximizing the decree of transparency.” Roger Dib, director of consulting firm Near East Consulting Group, took the view that the battle against corruption is a major political fight. The problem of encountering corruption mostly arises for companies that deal with the government in big projects, he said. “The cost to the economy is definite, through higher prices, delays in some projects, and the lack of transparency.”

His work did not involve the type of large projects where corruption becomes a major factor, Dib said, but noted that international consulting firms interested in joining up with NECG for a bid offer regularly ask as their first question “is this an open and transparent bid?” Corruption incurs a big cost because it deters foreign direct investment but might not be the top element of detraction, Dib added. “Frankly, I think the higher cost to the economy is the over-centralization of all decisions in an old-fashioned decision making process.”

Nonetheless, according to Salameh: “Investments want transparency. If it doesn’t encounter transparency, investment shies away. At the same time, the lack of transparency breeds corruption. Both things are related, the need to increase transparency and the need to reduce corruption.” He paused. “We in Lebanon cannot afford corruption.”

When World Bank President James Wolfensohn opened the annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund last month in Dubai, he said the world was out of balance, with one sixth of the global population controlling 80% of global GDP and the divide between rich and poor nations ever increasing. The head of the cornerstone institution for global finance felt the need to remind the assembled central bank governors and officials that world leaders had agreed to the goals of the United Nations’ Millennium Declaration in 2000 in order to address the world’s most pressing inequalities. UN member nations committed themselves to targets on improving provisions for health, education, equal opportunities for women and to cutting global poverty in half by 2015. To do so, developed countries pledged to open markets and increase aid, Wolfensohn said, while “developing countries promised to strengthen governance; create a positive investment climate; build transparent legal and financial systems; and fight corruption.”

When asking why many developing countries are not on track towards fulfilling the goals of the UN’s Millennium Declaration, Wolfensohn gave the answer himself. “Part of the reason is that reform is not happening fast enough in the developing nations,” he said. “There is still too much cronyism and corruption. In nearly every country, it is a matter of common knowledge where the problems are and who is responsible. Frankly, there is not enough bold and consistent action against corruption, particularly at the higher levels of influence.”

The reminder could not have been timelier for Lebanon. Over the past two months there has been much talk over several highly publicized cases involving corruption. The Al Madina banking scandal, the judicial investigation of former agriculture minister Ali Abdallah, and the outcry over funds that have disappeared at Electricite du Liban. Each charge involved allegations of corruption at high levels of influence. On the sidelines, the arrest and temporary detention of lawyer Mohammed Mugraby in August was decried by his supporters as an attempt to stop Mugraby from fighting corruption in the Lebanese legal community.

The standard definition of corruption is the abuse of public trust for illicit private or personal gain. This implies that the problem tends to manifest itself where the interaction of a public official with an enterprise or citizen opens the opportunity for improper conduct and illegal financial gain. As a rule, corrupt deals between the private sector and public servants involve a bribe giver and bribe taker. The initiative to embark on such criminal activity can originate from either side. Demand driven Ð the official whose responsibility it is to issue a permit or evaluate a project bid presents himself as unresponsive or slow, until his abilities are boosted with a bit of monetary medicine. In the most obvious and blatant cases, the bribe demand is blunt and explicit. On the other hand, the corrupting process may originate from the business end of the relationship. The corporation bent on acquiring a lucrative public project uses bribery, as a means to get a contract it might not win in fair and square bidding. In this example of supply-driven corruption, the criminal enterprise may explore the possibility of soliciting a public official by shelling out innocent gifts, which over time evolve into more and more lavish and potentially compromising favors that establish ties of complicity.

Beyond small-scale bribes there is of course high-level corruption, which can seriously damage a nation’s reputation, development and fiscal balance. Take for example Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos who plundered the Philippines; Nigeria’s Abacha regime which stole billions of dollars from the people of Nigeria; and Peru’s former president Alberto Fujimori who is wanted by his country’s prosecutors who claim he enriched himself from weapons deals and aid contributions while in office until 2000.

In these cases the sums of money in question are often hard to quantify. A declaration by African anti-corruption activists in 2001, estimated that corruption damages in Africa amount to anywhere between $20 billion and $40 billion. The Nyanga Declaration stated that this figure had “over the decades been illegally and corruptly appropriated from some of the world’s poorest countries, most of them in Africa, by politicians, soldiers, businesspersons and other leaders.” The declaration has since been quoted by a UN global study on illegal transfers.

The UN study, prepared at the beginning of 2003 for the committee deliberating on the world body’s impending Convention Against Corruption, listed some of the heads of governments and their families who plundered national resources, investing the money abroad. Mobuto Sese Seko pilfered $5.5 billion as president of Zaire, outdoing the Abacha regime’s estimated siege of over $2 billion; HaitiÕs Jean-Claude Duvalier transferred more than $120 million in presidentially embezzled funds out of the country, which is one of the poorest in the world. $227 million went amiss under Peru’s Fujimori government; the brother of former Mexican president Carlos Salinas raked in a fortune of $120 million as result of corruption, while Argentina’s Carlos Menem, left his country owing $90 billion.
 

Other reports on corruption in Africa suggest that, as a rough rule of thumb, a 5% bribe of a $200 million contract would get the personal attention of a head of state, while a government minister would be in the game at about one tenth of that. Nigeria’s problem is so chronic that the international community has suspended loans to the West African state.

These amounts are sharply set apart from the pots of petty corruption in the lower half of the corruption sphere. Here, you may be talking as little as a $1 bribe for a village official in an impoverished nation, or as much as $1,000 in exchange for gaining a contract to haul a company’s garbage or landscape the city parks in a G7 country. This realm includes anything from slipping a traffic cop a $20 bill rather than paying the $150 speeding fine, buying the city inspector a cozy lunch while the building crew pours that slightly doubtful looking concrete, the police detective enjoying himself “on the house” with the escort service – to a price fixing deal between the supplier of medical syringes and the purchasing manager in a public or private hospital.

In addition to dissecting these universally present layers of what has been called the “culture of corruption,Ó international corruption fighters Ð most vociferous among them the non-governmental watchdog organization, Transparency International (TI) Ð have been attacking specific cases of corruption such as that found in the global diamond trade, party financing, and money laundering. There is no indication that this web of grand and petty corruption, bribery, graft, and criminal egotism will shrivel up anytime soon, or that some countries and institutions are immune to the plague. The European Union, where six of the world’s ten least corrupt countries are located, has just been embattled by a $6 million corruption scandal at the Eurostat statistics institution and allegations of corruption in other departments. A glance into the pages of any respectable newspaper proves that corruption is one of the most frequently exposed evils to surface in media reports between Beijing and Cape Town, from Munich to Miami. The Enron scandal, showed that investor confidence can be maintained if corruption is dealt with immediately and swiftly.

In Lebanon, the general awareness of the existence of corruption appears to be nothing short of pervasive. “Corruption definitely exists in this country,” said a member of parliament who won his seat as an independent. “Even more, it is a requirement. The system here will reject anyone who doesn’t agree to be involved in a network of corruption.” As many local politicians will point out, corruption is found anywhere, said Yehya Sadowski, a political science professor at AUB. “The difference is that in most countries, you can reap revenue from corruption but you still have to deliver something. In many Middle Eastern countries, it is often a transfer of income without the bribe taker having to deliver anything,” he said.

From business leaders, journalists and consultants to financiers Ð Executive encountered no one who would deny the existence of corruption in Lebanon. The question, “does corruption exist in Lebanon” typically led to one of two initial responses; laughter, or a resounding “No!” of the type that a grownup would answer a five-year-old who asked: “Didn’t Santa Claus look just like uncle Joseph in Santa’s suit this year?”

The harder question is how prevalent corruption is in this country. Pundits claimed that the former minister of agriculture, Ali Abdallah, is being investigated for embezzlement of agricultural aid funds because his greed became too excessive, eventually grating the political circles that had previously tolerated his activities.

In the course of the Al Madina banking scandal, allegations of money laundering piled up on accusations of embezzlement and check fraud, standard financial crimes which the country’s financial and judicial authorities are usually more than keen to prosecute. As the Al Madina case dragged on for the better part of the past year, observers have repeatedly crowed that Lebanon’s central bank should have stepped in much earlier, and hinted at political interference in the investigation.

In the often-murky reports of the daily press, the case against Al Madina was supposedly even about to be suspended at one point this summer because the financial damage had been contained, and the file sent back to the Special Investigation Commission at the central bank. Amid the outrage, the central bank quickly clarified that it was only updating the information for the prosecutor’s office, and the office confirmed that the investigation into the criminal offenses was continuing.

Undeniably, the current policies and practices on informing the Lebanese public about cases of alleged or proven corruption, leave much to be desired. Accountable and transparent procedures in addressing the issue of corruption, evaluating its extent and exposing individual cases are imperative for improving the public perception that corruption is being fought. But Lebanon is at least not the last country to be in the dark. On a global scale, the fight against corruption is a recent one. Measuring and comparing the infestation of corruption country by country as a tool to strengthen the fight against this scourge has been a project that TI initiated first in 1995. By introducing the Corruption Perception Index (CPI), TI has significantly increased awareness of the issue and countries with a low score for good practice, such as Nigeria, have become bywords for countries that are bad for business. In many nations, TI’s CPI has become a widely used instrument of alarm that helps responsible officials and civil society groups in their fight against the syndrome. However, Lebanon until now had not ranked in the CPI, leaving it up to every person to guess where the country might stand in the global ranking. Lebanon’s corruption is of “Nigerian proportions,” suggested Sadowski, and the country should set itself a goal to reach the standard of China for its level of corruption in global comparison.

Here comes the good news. Starting this year, Lebanon will be included in the CPI, and there will be no more guessing about how the country is being perceived, based on the compounded findings from at least four studies sponsored by international agencies and independent consultants. TI set the release date for the 2003 CPI, rating 133 countries including Lebanon, for October 7. Although the exact ranking for Lebanon was not available at time of going to print, Executive learned that Lebanon will not score the lowest.

Whatever the score, some people will certainly be disappointed.

On September 30, Ayoub Humayed met with Executive for a political reality check on EDL, during which he answered questions on recent accusations leveled at EDL over corruption and criminal waste of public funds. In doing so, minister Humayed provided Executive with much anticipated answers on the issues of graft and transparency at EDL.

E: EDL has been specifically named in recent allegations of disappeared funds and inefficient management. Can you provide us with a precise figure on the cost of corruption at EDL?

AH: Lebanon is not an exception in the world. Corruption does not only affect developing economies. We should differentiate by looking at the causes of corruption. One cause of corruption is the lack of sustained and continuous supervision and accountability. Another factor is the lack of fair compensation that forces many EDL employees to supplement their salaries. Since I took office EDL and the water authorities have agreed to full transparency in any investigation. I am committed to facilitating the job of the investigative authorities in apprehending those who have abused the trust placed in them. The recent EDL crisis was purely financial. We needed money to buy fuel in the face of a global price hike. However, the debate became muddied by unhelpful side issues. [The minister then detailed how several measures were tried and abandoned until an agreement was reached under which $200 million could be borrowed from the central bank for the purchase of fuel.] In the course of these developments, the debate focused to the corruption and wastefulness that contaminated EDL in the past. Even though the director general of EDL and I have vowed to forward any information on irregularities we uncover, the ministry and EDL have no part in determining the direction of any investigation. Files on all previous activities at EDL have been made and are being investigated.

E: What about the stories that corruption was proven in these files?

AH: This issue does not concern us. A lot of noise has been made saying there is corruption, with people asking where the money went, and where wastefulness occurred. These questions have nothing to do with our present concern of finding money to buy fuel. These questions concern the past.

E: But the situation has become very heated and many people are stressing on the issue of corruption at EDL.

AH: Yes. Why we didn’t switch our power plants from oil to gas? Why are our networks and the tertiary links incomplete? Why can’t we erect power lines that would save millions? These are all legitimate questions, but some might have political reasons for raising these issues. Their motives may not be innocent. Today, these issues are in the hands of the judiciary whose responsibility it is to deal with any past irregularities. I am not in a position to pass judgment.

E: Could we talk about the underlying causes of the problems that are reflected in the situation of EDL. When did the problems start, and what was their effect on the plants, the networks, the grid, and power lines?

AH: We have a general problem in that there is too much ad hoc implementation of works with no proper planning. This is the main reason for irregularities in the public administration. This problem surfaces in every nook and cranny of our administration. You see a network of sewage pipes and no wastewater treatment plant and ask why do we need sewage pipes if we don’t have a treatment plant? I am not condemning nor am I excusing anyone. I am just not in the position to judge.

E: But we don’t want judgments.

AH: There are irregularities. I am not in a position to justify irregularities and mistakes. The issue of why there was an accumulation of factors that brought us to this explosive reality has aspects one cannot fathom with total objectivity and without bias or prejudice.

E: What is being done to remedy the problems at EDL?

AH: There are a lot of aspects to this topic. When EDL is suffering from the inner burnout of its administrative body and when one considers that there are 2,400 employees with an average age of 57 years, one can see that EDL cannot deliver what is required. For that reason, I said before that there are two sides to this issue. On the one side is the need to pump new blood into EDL through the activation of its human resources department. On the other side it is necessary to compensate employees fairly and give them incentives to work professionally.The reinforcement of human resources will mean that the administrative situation will improve, and so will the supervisory situation. It will also save money when compared to procedures currently used at EDL. It would bring great benefits if EDL can implement a system of bill collections, advanced meter readings and even prepaid cards. Completion of the 220 KV network and its connection to a six nation regional network should also provide energy at a lower cost.

E: Why weren’t these steps taken in 1994? What were the obstacles at the time?

AH: I cannot answer that. What I can say is that the funds that were received were destined for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the power plants. These plants were destroyed more than once during the Israeli aggression, and the costs were prohibitive. If there had been no Israeli aggression, a lot of money would have been saved. Before the civil war and the Israeli aggression, EDL was profitable and productive. It is important to evaluate the entire set of circumstances in order to remedy the situation and not look back to the past and bring up corruption and waste. Our focus is the current operations at EDL, which are being handled in a scientific and practical manner to achieve a better future.

E: As many people feel no remorse over tapping into electricity lines or not paying their bills, how are you going to change the perception of EDL and produce an image of transparency?

AH: I already answered that in part. We always say that two matters go hand-in-hand. The first is the right of EDL to collect its dues, either from the citizen or from other administrative and public institutions. Secondly, EDL has to offer the citizen continuous electricity at reasonable rates. I gave directions and issued many statements to EDL staff that stressed an ethical interaction with customers. This very important at a time when the public sees EDL as corrupt and unable to provide a value for money.

E: If today there were no more theft at EDL, would the utility be working normally?

AH: When Italy’s power supply broke down the other day, the reason was traced to a power line between Italy and France that had become neglected. When electricity networks broke down in the US, it was also due to the age of the system. These are giant developed nations. It is easy to pass judgment in Lebanon but we have to be objective. We have to look at the circumstances that EDL is working under and consider the past.Due to severe space restraints in the magazine, Executive had to edit portions of minister Humayed’s sweeping answers. The Executive team made every effort to ascertain that no loss in content occurred as result of the editorial cuts and that the integrity of the answers was preserved to entirety.