Date: Feb 28, 2019 Source: The Daily Star Lebanon: Tensions to simmer at Cabinet session Hussein Dakroub| The Daily Star BEIRUT: The Cabinet is set to meet Thursday amid tacit tensions over constitutional powers between the president and the prime minister in deciding Lebanon’s policies, as well as a wide anti-corruption campaign that appears to be targeting the Future Movement. Prime Minister Saad Hariri is scheduled to chair the Cabinet session, the second since the new government gained an overwhelming vote of confidence from Parliament on Feb. 15, at 11:30 a.m. Thursday at the Grand Serail. The agenda includes 52 items, most of them ordinary financial matters, including a request by the Finance Ministry to issue Treasury Eurobonds and a proposal by the Industry Ministry to protect national products. The agenda also includes the approval of funds offered by the European Union to finance a project along the Litani River Basin and a request by the Interior Ministry to accept an EU gift as part of supporting the security sector in Lebanon. However, divisive issues, such as administrative or military appointments that had hindered the government’s productivity in the past, and Lebanon’s relations with Syria, were not listed on the agenda, apparently with the aim of averting a new split within the 30-member national unity Cabinet, barely a month after its formation. “Since the government formation [on Jan. 31], there has been a campaign targeting the Future Movement under two slogans: the constitutional powers and fighting corruption. But this campaign is doomed to failure,” Future Movement MP Mohammad Hajjar told The Daily Star Wednesday. “There are some people who want to drive a wedge between the presidency and the premiership over constitutional powers, but they will not succeed.” He defended a statement issued after the weekly meeting of the Future Movement’s parliamentary bloc Tuesday that stressed that the issue of powers is clearly outlined in the Constitution. “Anyone who tries to exploit this slogan in order to create a problem with President Michel Aoun will not succeed, especially since President Aoun is fully aware of the provisions in the Constitution which he has sworn to safeguard. Therefore, he [Aoun] will not accept anyone to transcend constitutional texts,” Hajjar said. “Similarly, Prime Minister Saad Hariri is aware of the limits of his constitutional powers which he will not cross, but he will not allow anyone to infringe on,” he added. In its statement Tuesday, the Future bloc warned against attempts to stir up political battles over the constitutional powers of the president and the prime minister in deciding Lebanon’s policies and it urged all the parties, including the president, to avoid disputes at the Cabinet sessions that could hinder the new government’s work. The Future bloc was reacting to last week’s Cabinet session, when a debate on normalizing ties with the Syrian regime prompted Aoun to abruptly end it, saying that he was the one who decided the country’s higher interests. Aoun’s firm stance has revived an off-and-on row over the constitutional powers of the president and the prime minister in deciding Lebanon’s policies. Responding to Hezbollah’s declared anti-corruption campaign, part of which appears to be targeting former Premier Fouad Siniora, Hajjar said: “The Future Movement was the first to call for fighting corruption and ensuring the material requirements for it by issuing laws, decisions and regulations to confront [corruption] at all levels.” “We reject any attempt to exploit this slogan [fighting corruption] in order to settle political scores. This matter will not pass,” Hajjar said, adding: “For instance, there is a return to talk about the issue of $11 billion that had always been opened to target [former] Premier Fouad Siniora as a result of the political stances taken by his government at the time. But it turned out that all the uproar over this issue got nowhere because it was not based on any serious information.” Hajjar’s comments came amid growing calls from officials across the political spectrum, including ministers in the new Cabinet, for a full-fledged campaign against corruption in the public administration and within Lebanon’s governing class. They also came as Parliament’s Finance and Budget Committee has been meeting to discuss illegal hiring in the public sector. Committee Chairman MP Ibrahim Kanaan, said Wednesday the committee had found that over 15,100 workers were hired for positions that had no legal description or framework. In line with Hezbollah’s anti-corruption campaign ordered by party leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, Hezbollah MP Hasan Fadlallah has called for an investigation into the disappearance of “billions” of Lebanese pounds in public funds. The unaccounted for funds included financial advances made to public institutions such as Electricite du Liban and the Higher Relief Council that were spent “without legal justification,” Fadlallah, who is in charge of Hezbollah’s anti-corruption bureau, told a news conference in Parliament Monday. Earlier this month, Fadlallah also alleged there were “manipulated and missing financial documents that could land a lot of people in jail ... including ex-prime ministers who may be held accountable.” He particularly mentioned the $11 billion that Siniora’s government has been previously accused of spending in extra-budgetary expenditures between 2005 and 2009. Siniora plans to hold a news conference Friday to respond to Fadlallah’s allegations. Fighting corruption, largely blamed for endemic budget deficit, and halting the waste of public funds, are among measures pledged by the government at the CEDRE conference to salvage the country’s struggling economy, battered by $85 billion in public debt. Meanwhile, Speaker Nabih Berri plans to hold two parliamentary sessions next month, according to MPs who met him during his weekly meeting with lawmakers at his Ain al-Tineh residence. “Speaker Berri has consulted with Prime Minister Saad Hariri and will call for two successive sessions in the first half of March,” MP Ali Bazzi from Berri’s bloc told reporters after the meeting. Hariri met Berri at Ain al-Tineh Tuesday night to discuss the planned parliamentary sessions. The first session is to elect the Higher Council tasked with trying presidents and ministers, to be followed by another session to ratify finalized and urgent draft laws, Bazzi said. The Higher Council, a corruption-fighting body, was established by an article in the Constitution to try presidents and ministers accused of corruption and wrongdoing. It would include MPs and members of the judiciary. In the second half of March, Berri will call for another session to monitor and question the Cabinet. Bazzi said the speaker was committed to holding such sessions monthly. “It is not an insult if a minister is called for questioning regarding a file. It is normal everywhere in the world, but in Lebanon it is considered an insult,” Bazzi added. He was referring to Education Minister Akram Chehayeb, who did not attend Tuesday’s hearing of the Finance and Budget Committee to answer questions about potential illegal hiring at his ministry - allegedly done under his predecessor MP Marwan Hamadeh.