Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. (Credit: Ali Fawwaz/Parliament)
BEIRUT — Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Wednesday called for a parliamentary session at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 7, to discuss allegations of corruption in the telecommunications dossier.
In an interview with al-Manar published on Nov. 9, MP Hassan Fadlallah said that Parliament has started taking steps, in light of a meeting of its administration and justice committee, in order to decide on requests by the judiciary to refer former telecommunications ministers to the Supreme Council, which is a body appointed by Parliament with authority to prosecute MPs and ministers.
Fadlallah, who belongs to Parliament's Loyalty to the Resistance bloc, which is affiliated with Hezbollah, pointed out that the telecommunications dossier is "revealing major irregularities, corruption and waste of billions of dollars."
The telecoms sector in Lebanon is often the subject of accusations of corruption, including a lack of transparency, the awarding of lucrative contracts in an irregular manner and the illegal hiring of civil servants.