After seeing some discussions of the Nahass family vacation/travesty in Mexico, I want to clarify my views, so that there is no misunderstanding:
I don't think that an anonymous person commenting on my blog under the name of Mayasa and giving me a random phone number of a purported travel agent is sufficient to quell doubts in my mind over whether or not our Telecom Minister's trip to Mexico involves corrupt financial practices. I don't know.
More importantly, I don't even care to know whether public funds are being used for a family vacation or not. If it is tant pis, if it is not tant mieux. There is enough corruption in the country that a couple of airline tickets are a drop in the bucket. I realise this is a cavalier attitude, but this is only because I think there are bigger issues at stake.
The real questions to my mind are:
1. On what grounds does our esteemed Minister believe his wife and daughters make appropriate representatives of the country at this particular conference?
2. What sort of message does our esteemed Minister believe he is sending to the world by registering his family as representatives of the Ministry of Telecommunications?
3. Does our esteemed Minister believe that representatives of other countries will take Lebanon's representation seriously when they see the laundry list of Nahass names?
I think it is an insult to all conference participants that our minister decides to turn Lebanon's delegation into a family reunion. At best it betrays an astonishing lack of professionalism, and at worse it shows that he does not take other delegates seriously. This is what is truly shameful. Other delegates I have talked to are already shocked!
Why is our esteemed Minister doing this? Does he believe that the official receptions can be efficiently turned into cheap family picnics? Or is he concerned that no one from any other delegation is going to talk to him and he does not want to get lonely?
I will monitor any updates of the delegates list, and will update you if the Minister removes his family members' names from the list.
Update: If you came here through a direct link, please see this.
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ReplyDeleteMinister Nahas to Oussama Hayek on September 27, 2010: Dear Oussama, if you want to pursue your oversight function till the end, check with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to verify the private origin of funds. As for the inclusion of family members on the official delegates list, it is due to a secretarial error, and is being corrected. Please keep us posted.
ReplyDeletePost by Oussama Hayek on September 27, 2010: Update Regarding Minister Nahass's participation in ITU Conference. This is to follow up from my two postings on Minister Nahass's participation in the ITU Conference in Mexico next month. I am happy to say that Minister Nahass has now informed the ITU to amend the Lebanese delegate list, and remove the names of his family members.