The headquarters of Electricité du Liban (EDL) in Beirut. (Credit: João Sousa/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — The director of one of the service providers for Lebanon's state-run Electricité du Liban (EDL), KVA (consisting of Arabian Construction Company and Khatib & Alami), was questioned Tuesday at the Palace of Justice in Beirut by the financial prosecutor general, Ali Ibrahim, a high judicial source confirmed to L'Orient-Le Jour.
KVA Director Mohammad K. was arrested last Thursday along with the company's collection manager before being released.
KVA is a consortium of three companies specialized in public service management, responsible for tasks such as collecting electricity bills on behalf of EDL. The company's headquarters were sealed as part of a case involving falsification of electrical meters.
On Tuesday, the accused claimed he was not guilty and shifted the blame to EDL, according to the judicial source, asserting that the company did not fulfill its contractual obligations. The KVA director then committed to providing documents to substantiate his statements.
Last Thursday, a judicial source informed L'Orient-Le Jour that "the company, as a private enterprise under contract with the government, did not properly fulfill its role. It is also responsible for maintaining public services belonging to EDL, a responsibility it did not uphold."
Given Lebanon's financial collapse, Electricité du Liban provides subscribers with only a few hours of electricity per day due to limited production capacities. Lebanese citizens are forced to subscribe to private generators to receive power and, in recent years, have been turning to solar panels.