Naharnet

Gemayel Files Lawsuit against CDR for 'Failing in Duties'

Kataeb leader MP Sami Gemayel filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the Council for Development and Reconstruction for its long standing failure to follow up on the trash management file since tasking of Sukleen with collecting garbage.

After talks he held with Prosecutor Samir Hammoud at the Justice Palace, Gemayel said: “The CDR is the body eligible to follow up on the work of the companies that are tasked to handle Lebanon's waste but it failed to do so and no one held it responsible for that.”

“Because the parliament is closed and the monitoring bodies in Lebanon are not carrying out their obligations, it is our duty to ask and hold accountable,” he added.

“We believe that mistakes will be made again if the judiciary did not carry out its role.”

Stressing that Sukleen should have been inquired about its procedures of handling and sorting the waste, Gemayel lashed out saying: “For many years, Sukleen has been responsible for removing the trash and has failed in its work. Instead of land-filling %20 of the garbage (as per agreement) it was land-filling %80 in Naameh which brought us to this disaster today.”

“The CDR is the party responsible to monitor this and follow up on the work of the companies,” added the Kataeb chief holding part of the state institutions who dealt with this file responsible.

The government signed a contract with Sukleen in 1994 for collecting and transporting the garbage in Beirut and Mount Lebanon. The contract has been extended several times for lack of any substitute.

Reports emerged that the company failed to abide by the conditions that were set in the contract with regard to the amounts of trash that should have been sorted, recycled and land-filled.

The trash management crisis erupted in July 2015 after the closure of the biggest landfill of Naameh that receives the trash of the capital and Mount Lebanon.

Several efforts to contain the situation including suggestions to establish landfills in different Lebanese regions have failed.

In December a promising export plan approved by the cabinet met the same fate after a scandal revealed that Britain’s Chinook Urban Mining company, which was selected by the government to manage the export scheme, fabricated its permits.

D.A.

G.K.

Source: Naharnet


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