Qabbani Vows to Question Bassil after Audit Bureau Report Fell in his Favor

The head of the parliamentary energy committee, MP Mohammed Qabbani, vowed on Thursday to question Energy Minister Jebran Bassil after he lamented that an Audit Bureau report on the red diesel scandal didn’t hold him accountable.

Qabbani told An Nahar daily that the Bureau’s representatives had informed members of the committee that they can’t hold Bassil accountable.

“That’s why I decided to submit a written questioning to Minister Bassil within the next two days,” he said, hoping that the grilling would lead to “a vote of confidence.”

The scandal erupted over shortages in the household heating fuel during a one-month subsidy that ended on Jan. 18. Oil refineries, however, delivered to distribution companies huge quantities of red diesel in the last days of the subsidy period allowing them to make millions of dollars of profits by selling them at non-subsidized prices.

Asked about the report that stressed the absence of any written orders by the energy ministry to stop delivering to the market subsidized red diesel a few days before Jan. 18, Qabbani said: “There were oral instructions and particularly from the previous (energy) ministers Mohammed Fneish and Mohammed Safadi to stop delivering subsidized red diesel three days before the end of the subsidy period.”

He stressed that the general financial inspector, Salah al-Danaf, had reached important leads in his investigation and informed the head of the inspection board George Awad.

Qabbani regretted that he had no longer any information about the fate of the probe.

But Bassil expressed satisfaction with the results of the Audit Bureau’s investigation, saying the report issued by it “did justice to the energy ministry and refuted the lies led by (March 14 opposition) MPs.”

Excerpts of the report published on Wednesday laid blame on the government, the consumer protection authority and the companies that made millions of dollars of profits.