Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, March 1998, Page 102

Beirut Bulletin

As Lebanon Rebuilds After 13 Lost Years, Ugly Faces of "Normalcy" Reappear

By Marilyn Raschka

Foreign visitors are amazed to see the energy and vitality of the private sector at work—and play—in Beirut and throughout Lebanon. The groups I talked to were enthralled to see the country on the move and literally on the rise from store fronts to beach fronts.

The Marriott Hotel is open and thriving. TGI Friday's is booming. The scars of war have been erased in the old downtown and the incisions deep into the ground and face- lifting above it are producing a totally new look.

All this is taking place in a Lebanon whose government agencies still are worn down from the years of war and which continue to struggle with the effects on civilian life of Israeli occupation in south Lebanon. With the first strong post-war government in 1992 under the premiership of Rafik Hariri, the response to the situation was to add more bureaucracy in hopes of solving more problems.

Cabinet posts and ministries were created, diversified, and subdivided so that each problem facing post-war Lebanon and its population could be efficiently dealt with. But out of chaos came more chaos.

The ministries were greedy. Each demanded offices, official cars, funds for official functions, big budgets for essential and urgent projects, and of course they claimed that all their projects were. Lebanon's budget grew and grew. And so did the squandering, the corruption and mismanagement. Consequently Lebanon faces a budget deficit of 37 percent as it heads into 1998.

In one publication Minister of Finance Fouad Seniora was caricatured riding a one-wheeled bicycle attached to a ball and chain. He's balancing a bunch of water-filled bowls which are labeled Displaced People, Social Services, Tourism, Investors, Development, Productivity. Around his waist is a tight belt labeled AUSTERITY. His face bears a grim, weary look. The cartoon was entitled: MISSION IMPOSSIBLE!

Lebanon's human problems are best portrayed by the thousands of families whose homes were damaged or destroyed during the war. The Ministry of the Displaced emptied its coffers long before even a percentage of these displaced families could be helped. Their situation remains desperate.

Insurance payments owed to the American University Hospital by the Ministry of Health and National Social Security Fund have become so big they they are affecting the financial well-being of the hospital itself.

Lebanese public schools are in a physical and pedagogical mess. Class size allows for little instruction as the teacher struggles to maintain discipline. Poverty is on the rise as the cost of living increases. High-rise luxury condos swallow up land which is needed for public housing.

In November the government agreed that something had to give. The plan is to do some belt-tightening for the next six years. Notch by notch, these are the proposals: freeze non-urgent construction projects; improve tax collection and unpaid public utility fees; merge and reform government departments and agencies; lower ministry budgets.

Kamal Saba, head of the Central Inspection Board (CIB), boldly suggested an internal audit campaign of his own department. "We should reorganize our own house and support our staff with all they need. We should settle the 700 files lingering on our desks and organize our administrative work. After all, corruption is a euphemism for bad management," he said.

Prime Minister Hariri himself came out publicly to support the work of the CIB. Hariri said the board's duties would involve rewarding honest civil servants instead of merely exposing corruption.

He then gave his own definition of corruption: "Civil servants failing to arrive at work or carry out their duties, abusing their authority or accepting bribes, or being unable to resist the pressure of influential people."

The head of a government department once told me that every civil servant retires from his job with an H on the back of his jacket. For some the H stands for himaar, or donkey. For others the H stands for haraami, or thief. You were either honest and called an ass, or you were clever, and figured out how to accept bribes and work the system to supplement your salary.

Schemes for raising revenues—another way of attacking the budget deficit—are as modern as the times. A mobile phone tax of two cents per minute was imposed but in the first month of tax collection (August) revenues of $3.4 million fell far short of an expected $4-5 million.

President Elias Hrawi is working on an old-fashioned solution. On a recent trip to Brazil he called upon Brazilians of Lebanese descent and recent emigrès to invest in Lebanon's future by supporting the construction of a hospital, school or public library in their (Lebanese) home village. It might work, if Lebanese emigrès decide that the years of destruction are over, once and for all.

Unfortunately, that decision probably won't be reached until the foreign occupiers all have withdrawn to Israel and Syria. Only that will end the Israel-Hezbollah duel that keeps bringing Israeli aircraft back for new strikes on Lebanese cities, towns and refugee camps, and keeps Iranian-funded Hezbollah engaged in the rocket attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians that fuel the cycle of retaliation.