In Mount Lebanon's land administration, the is a wide range of illegal practices. (Credit: Illustrative Photo/Bigstock)
Scandals in public administration are one after another.
After last month’s corruption case at the Vehicle Registration Center, in which dozens of employees were arrested, a new Pandora’s box is opening in broad daylight, this time in Mount Lebanon.
For nearly two weeks, the Mount Lebanon prosecution at the Court of Appeal has been examining information about embezzlement perpetrated by employees of the land department, especially in Baabda and Metn, who reportedly amassed huge sums through bribes taken from taxpayers.
With the help of security services, prosecutors are collecting evidence that would enable them to arrest employees and brokers, a judicial source told L’Orient-Le Jour.
These current investigations were triggered by a recent discovery of “a link in the chain,” according to the above-mentioned source. He believes the investigation must remain secret at this stage, pending the precise identification of persons involved and the crimes of which they are suspected.
Although these offenses have occurred over the span of decades, the timing of the current investigation is noteworthy. One judge deplored the fact that justice is criticized, “both when it is mobilized and when it does not act.”
Corrupt, in spite of themselves
In a failing state, citizens cannot obtain official documents without greasing the palms of public employees, much to the detriment of depleted public coffers. In the land department, the range of illegal practices — which have cost the state countless sums over the years — is very wide.
L’Orient-Le Jour collected many testimonies from citizens on this subject, most of whom have encountered this obstacle at one point or another. Those who have paid bribes do not want to be identified, for fear of being punished for their violation of the law.
“I bought a property in 2018 at $700,000 that was registered at only $150,000 thanks to a deal with a land registry employee, to whom I gave $3,000 under the table,” said an engineer.
On the other hand, when the purchaser of a property decides to declare its real value, he or she is sometimes faced with a rejection from an employee.
“The employee did not want to believe that the purchase price of the land I had just acquired was true. He claimed that it should be higher than what I declared. I had to pay him $5,000 to agree to do the required formality,” said a company manager.
Another taxpayer was denied an official document until he decided to “reward” the employee in charge.
“I went back and forth to the land registry several times to obtain the title deed of a property I had just bought. Each time, they used technical problems as an excuse— power cuts, lack of paper or ink, etc. In the end, I paid $500 to the civil servant, who immediately landed the document on his desk.”
The registration and lifting of a mortgage are also an opportunity for some civil servants to line their pockets. In case of seizure — or lifting of a seizure — of property, they can delay the registration or remove the real estate guarantee decided by the enforcement judge.
Since the sluggish pace of these formalities is not to the advantage of service users, they are forced to pull out their wallets to speed things up. Even the simplest documents are proving hard to obtain without an added bribe.
An online portal created in 2016 has done little to mitigate fraud.
A land registry civil servant attributes this flaw to the fact that the electronic signature system has yet to be established.
“A certificate can be obtained digitally, but it has no official value until it is signed by the administration,” he told L’Orient-Le Jour on condition of anonymity.
“No implementing decree has been issued to date to establish the electronic signature that the law enacts, the user must go to the land registry to have his document endorsed,” he added.
An effective approach?
The senior civil servant was hesitant to label all employees of the land registry as corrupt. He attributed “the weaknesses of some” to their insufficient salaries and to the current situation in which taxpayers are rushing to complete their formalities before the official rate is raised.
Doubtful about the effectiveness of the current legal action, the source recalled that eight years ago (in December 2014), around 60 employees of the Directorate General of Land Registry and Cadastre within the Ministry of Finance were referred to the prosecution and the Central Inspection for corruption and abuse of power. None of the defendants were imprisoned, he said.
In any case, he stated that removing a civil servant who is guilty of an offense and replacing him or her is not likely to reduce gangrene in public service. In this case, the best way to fight corruption is to “develop the system of land formalities,” he said.
He referred to a draft law that would allow procedures (registration fees, title deeds, etc.) to be carried out by notaries rather than cadastres, so as to avoid direct contact between users and employees.
This draft was developed in cooperation with the French Ministry of Finance’s administration and proposed under the Hassan Diab government (2020-2021), said the senior civil servant. It is currently with the Ministry of Justice, he added.
This article was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour. Translation by Joelle El Khoury.