An aerial view of Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport, March 7, 2020. (Credit: Patrick Baz/AFP)
BEIRUT — The recruitment of air traffic controllers in Lebanon is being blocked by sectarian quotas preventing qualified candidates from being appointed because of their sect, Beirut MP Ibrahim Mneimneh alleged on Twitter (currently “X”) Monday.
Lebanese candidates who successfully completed the Civil Service Board’s recruitment process are not being appointed because of sectarian considerations, Mneimneh said, causing the Ministry of Public Works and Transport to contract the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to second air traffic controllers to Beirut’s airport at a cost higher than the salaries of local hires.
He said that the ministry presented a plan to hire ICAO air traffic controllers to the Parliamentary Public Works and Transport committee last Thursday during a committee meeting. L’Orient Today is unable to independently confirm the details of this presentation and the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, the Civil Service Board, and the Air Navigation Department of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“This was for me very problematic, because we are paying extra money to, most likely, foreigners, coming from abroad as air traffic controllers where we always had the opportunity to appoint Lebanese for these positions,” Mneimneh told L’Orient Today.
Air traffic control is the responsibility of the Ministry’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation, which is radically understaffed according to a September 2022 study by the Civil Service Board. The study found that at that time 739 positions of 932 listed in the staffing plan were empty — a vacancy rate of 79 percent.
Mneimneh also noted that imposing a sectarian quota over appointments to these positions is unconstitutional.
Air traffic controllers “are not in positions where the constitution dictates that they should be [subject to sectarian quotas]” he said, “but this practice has been going on in most institutions and this illustrates again how sectarianism can really cripple the institution and at the same time cost us a lot of money.”
Under Article 95 of the constitution, as amended by the 1990 Taif Accords, Grade One civil service posts are distributed equally between Christians and Muslims without reserving any particular job for any sectarian group. For the other four grades in the civil service system, “the principle of confessional representation in public service jobs … shall be canceled.” Violations of this provision are rampant.
Mneimneh said he will be filing a parliamentary query to the minister for more information about the status of air traffic controllers and the government’s plan to fill vacancies.