No end seems to be in sight for the war waged by Minister of Telecommunications Boutros Harb against his predecessor Nicolas Sehnaoui who rebuffed his successor's order to investigate the drastic drop in mobile revenues in 2012 and 2013, adding that nearly $1 billion was spent to upgrade the networks but the services and coverage were still poor.
Harb had noted that the revenues of one of the mobile operators have dropped drastically, accusing the Telecommunications Ministry of concealing facts and accurate figures about the performance of the telecoms sector.
MTV website has learned that incumbent Minister Boutros Harb is drafting a new statement set to be issued within the upcoming few hours in response to Sahnaoui's accusations. The statement will contain detailed information about the source of waste in both mobile companies during Sahnaoui's mandate.
Sources revealed that the squandering detected in the Alfa and MTC companies was mainly attributed to financial support granted for NGOs, clubs and associations affiliated either to Free Patriotic Movement or Ministers Nicolas Sahnaoui and Minister Gibran Bassil.
For instance, the Ministry of Telecommunications, via the two mobile operators, had granted a sum of $350,000 to the "Batrouniyat" association in a bid to "support its activities". The said amount is indeed considered as huge and suspicious given that it was granted to an NGO whose activities are deemed as limited and directly supervised by Minister Gibran Bassil. It is worth noting that the amount was granted before the formation of the new cabinet and, therefore, before having Boutros Harb appointed as Minister of Telecommunications.
Batrouniyat's last festival was sponsored by two companies, respectively specialized in the telecommunications and oil sectors.
Summer festivities at Batroun and Simar Jbeil as well as all activities that took place in Ashrafieh under the patronage of Sahnaoui had obtained a huge financial support, which proves that there is a political abuse of the Telecom Ministry's budget.
