Geagea: What We Receive Today Is 'Jibran Bassil's Electricity'... Because We Still Have the Same Plants

The head of the Lebanese Forces party, Samir Geagea, affirmed that the crisis afflicting the electricity sector is the result of the policies adopted over the past years, considering that the Lebanese are still receiving the "electricity we inherited from the era of Jibran Bassil," because the infrastructure of production plants, transmission and distribution networks has not changed to this day, the only difference being that this infrastructure is now managed as required, which has led to the citizen receiving the same hours of supply they used to receive previously, but without the current government spending "a single penny" from the state treasury on this sector.

In an interview with "Al-Massira" magazine, which will publish it in full in its upcoming issue, Geagea stressed that addressing the electricity crisis is not done through administrative decisions or decrees, because the sector is based on massive infrastructure, explaining that "electricity consists of plants, distribution networks, and infrastructure, and it is not a matter of moving a matchstick from one place to another or issuing a decree to solve the crisis."

He pointed out that "the electricity people are receiving so far is 'Jibran Bassil's electricity,' because we still have the same plants, the same distribution networks, and the same conditions, but with good management, nothing more, nothing less." He added that the government, since assuming its responsibilities, "has not spent a single penny on electricity from the state treasury, and whoever says otherwise should produce the documents proving that."

He noted that the continuation of the crisis is not due to a shortcoming of the current administration of the Minister of Energy and his team, but rather to the absence of the necessary financial capabilities to implement the required investments, reminding that the electricity sector has drained over the past fifteen years "no less than thirty billion dollars from the state treasury," yet the Lebanese have continued to suffer the same problem.

Geagea considered that the real solution begins with involving the private sector in electricity production and managing this sector, saying: "As long as this sector is under state management, it will never be fixed." He revealed that the Minister of Energy and his team spent the past months completing the legal and regulatory requirements to establish the regulatory authority and prepare the tender documents, in preparation for opening the door for investment to the private sector, noting that today specifically this door was opened for companies wishing to invest on the regulatory authority's website, which constitutes a pivotal milestone in the reform path. He added: "I consider that today is the beginning of the end of the electricity crisis in Lebanon, by opening this sector to the private sector, because there is no way to save the electricity sector except through this step."

Geagea touched on the criticisms directed at the performance of the Minister of Energy, especially those accusing him of not achieving any tangible progress since assuming responsibility, considering that these criticisms ignore facts and figures, and are based on an inaccurate comparison between the current reality of the sector and what it was before. He pointed out that some repeat that the Lebanese were enjoying better electricity supply when the "Free Patriotic Movement" was managing the ministry, despite the exorbitant cost borne by the treasury, but the facts prove otherwise, affirming that the supply hours today do not differ from what they were in that period, with a fundamental difference being that the state no longer bears the financial burdens it used to bear previously, which amounted to one billion dollars annually from the public treasury. He added: "The claim that electricity cost the state treasury one billion dollars but there was electricity is completely incorrect, because the supply is still the same, but at zero dollar cost to the state treasury."

Geagea considered that a large part of the problem lies in the citizens' belief that the money spent from the state treasury does not concern them directly, while in reality it is the Lebanese people's own money, saying: "The treasury is your pocket, and paying from it means that you are the ones paying."

In response to a question about not launching new projects to build electricity production plants, despite the existence of international offers in past years, Geagea affirmed that those offers did indeed exist, but the conditions available then no longer exist today, after Lebanon entered a phase of financial bankruptcy.

He explained that several global companies, including Siemens, General Motors, and other companies, had expressed their readiness to invest in building electricity production plants under the BOT system, benefiting from the Lebanese state's ability at that time to provide a sovereign guarantee to investors, but this reality changed completely after the financial crisis. He said: "The offers no longer exist, unlike before, and the reason is that Lebanon was not in a state of bankruptcy previously. Any company, under the BOT formula, was ready to come to Lebanon and invest, because the state was able to give a sovereign guarantee. Today, Lebanon is a bankrupt state, and it cannot provide this guarantee, and therefore no company is ready to invest in the absence of this guarantee."

He pointed out that the Minister of Energy has not stopped, since assuming his duties, trying to attract foreign companies to invest in the sector, revealing that he made a series of contacts and visits to the United States, France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, and Gulf countries, in an attempt to convince specialized companies to enter the Lebanese market, but all these attempts collided with the reality of the state's inability to provide the required guarantees. He added that this reality forced the regulatory authority to adopt a new approach based on granting the private investor the right to produce and distribute electricity simultaneously, securing for them the economic guarantee previously provided by the state's sovereign guarantee. He said: "Today, in order for the private sector to agree to invest, the regulatory authority presented a model that allows any company to build a plant and obtain distribution at the same time, because the guarantee lies in its ability to collect payments itself, after the state's inability to provide the sovereign guarantee."

Geagea considered that it is unacceptable for the "Free Patriotic Movement" to criticize the current ministry's performance in the electricity file, after spending fifteen years responsible for this sector, saying: "The last people who have the right to speak on the subject of electricity, and it is shameful for them to speak about it in the first place, are the group of the Free Patriotic Movement. At the very least, they should remain silent; they lasted fifteen years in this sector, and we all saw in what condition they handed it over." He added that the infrastructure the sector relies on today is the same one left by previous administrations, explaining that the only difference lies in the method of management, saying: "The electricity we still receive today is the electricity of the current... not the electrical current, but the other current that electrifies without giving electricity."

Geagea affirmed that the citizens' pain is legitimate, and that they have the right to demand improved electricity supply, but he called for directing responsibility to the parties that brought the sector to its current state, considering that the step taken by opening the door for investment to the private sector represents the most important transformation that should have happened years ago. In this context, he recalled offers that he said were available to Lebanon in the past, pointing out that Siemens offered to implement production plants under the BOT system without the state bearing any cost, and the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development expressed its readiness to build the electricity plants Lebanon needs, based on a request from President Michel Suleiman to the Emir of Kuwait, but these opportunities, according to Geagea, were not taken advantage of at the time due to Jibran Bassil's rejection of them, saying: "Here is the catastrophe, the catastrophe is in what we did not do in the past ten years, not in what we cannot do today under unfavorable circumstances, which do not allow us to do more than we have done so far, i.e., finding a way for the private sector to enter the electricity sector."

Geagea paused at what he described as the "deep state" within public administrations, considering that the obstacles facing the reform of the electricity sector are not limited to technical or financial aspects, but also extend to administrative hurdles that hinder the implementation of decisions and reforms, pointing out that the electricity sector regulatory authority formed a clear example of that. He explained that the members of the authority are highly specialized and competent individuals, whom the Minister of Energy gathered from several countries, as most of them returned from abroad to participate in the authority, but they were forced to work for long months, eight months, without receiving their salaries due to delays in administrative procedures. He said: "Just as there is a deep state in the security field, there is also a deep state in the state's administrations."

In the same context, Geagea revealed that the Ministry of Energy faces a no less serious problem, represented by the refusal of a large number of state administrations to pay their due electricity bills to Électricité du Liban, at a time when strict procedures are applied to citizens who delay paying their dues. He said: "The ordinary citizen, if they do not pay the electricity bill, the state cuts off their electricity. But when the state itself does not pay its bills, what can we do with it?" He pointed out that the volume of arrears owed by public administrations has reached high levels threatening the institution's ability to continue, noting that the value of these dues amounts to about 250 million dollars, while the arrears resulting from exemptions approved by the government for the Council of the South during recent years range between 150 and 200 million dollars. He considered that supporting affected areas is a national duty not disputed, but financing this support must come from the state budget, not from the revenues of Électricité du Liban, because that directly affects its ability to purchase fuel and secure electricity supply. He said: "The government is obligated to help the people of the South, and we are all obligated to do so, but not at the expense of Électricité du Liban, which has its own accounts, and on which the tariff was based to secure the price of fuel needed for electricity production. When 30 percent of the institution's revenues stop, how can it continue?" He added that the Minister of Energy spent the past months following up on this file with the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, and the Minister of Finance, warning that the continued delay of the state in paying its dues could lead to the institution's inability to purchase the necessary fuel to continue supply. He said: "The Minister of Energy spent the past three months warning that we might reach a stage where we cannot purchase fuel. We do not want to increase the tariff on citizens, and therefore we say to the state: pay what you owe so that we can continue."