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Concerns raised over the tender process for the construction of a second terminal at Lebanon’s only international airport.
Lebanon has scrapped controversial plans to construct a second terminal for Beirut’s international airport following transparency concerns and public concern, the country’s transport minister has said.
In a statement on his official Twitter account, Ali Hamie, Lebanon’s Public Works and Transportation Minister, said that work on the second terminal at Beirut International Airport would not proceed and that the contract would be cancelled.
Earlier in March, Lebanese officials said that it would construct a US$122 million terminal at the Rafik Hariri International Airport, which would have a four year project delivery timeline.
In a statement at the time, Hamie said that Terminal 2 would bring in private sector investments worth $122 million, and that it would have been capable of handling 3.5 million passengers annually. The plan was to construct the new terminal at the site of the airport’s old cargo building. It was due to be carried out by Lebanese Air Transport, a private company, and daa International, the Irish airport company.
However, critics ranging from civil society organisations to lawmakers were quick to note the absence of a tender process and a lack of involvement from the Public Procurement Authority. Others questioned how a caretaker government, with limited powers, could announce a major infrastructure project in the country, at a time when concerns around systemic corruption are growing.
According to a report by Arab News, the head of the Public Procurement Authority, Jean Ellieh, stated that the contract “did not pass through” the regulatory body, as required under a law passed in 2021.
10 civil society groups, including Transparency International Lebanon, have warned of serious abuses in the procurement law’s application, which would open the door to ‘corruption and nepotism’, the report added.
Lebanon scraps plans for $122m new terminal at Beirut international airport
Ali Hamie said that following the ‘legal controversy’, the Lebanese government would not proceed with the contract, in his statement. Highlighting the importance of the project, he stressed that the decision was taken because the discussion had moved in a different direction than intended, and that the contract was being cancelled so as to resolve the differences and concerns raised.
He had also previously stated that the Public Works and Transportation Ministry would meet with Parliament to provide explanations for the viability and validity of the project, and that it would prepare a detailed report about all the occupancy, construction, and investment contracts around the airport.
The construction of the terminal project was announced as Lebanon grapples with its worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history, rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement by the country’s political class.
Airport project would have opened Lebanon to the world – PM
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said at the time that the project would ‘open more horizons for air aviation between Lebanon and the world’, and that it would help solve several problems, including crowding at the current terminal.
Hamie had stated that the project would create 500 direct jobs, and 2,000 related jobs. The terminal was being targeted at chartered and low-cost flights, he added.
Ireland’s Minister of State James Browne had attended the announcement ceremony in Beirut and was quoted in a statement released by the Lebanese prime minister’s office as saying that the contract signed will deepen business relations between the two countries.
The airport currently handles 8 million passengers a year, and there are plans are to reach 20 million in 2030, according to the website of national carrier Middle East Airlines.
Lebanon’s economic crisis that began in October 2019 has left three quarters of the country’s 6 million people, including 1 million Syrian refugees, in poverty. The Lebanese pound has lost more than 95% of its value. |
