A contract to expand Beirut International 'class='highlighted-tag'>Beirut International Airport sparked controversy in Lebanon, with non-governmental organizations questioning its legality and accusing the caretaker government of lack of transparency in a country whose institutions are ravaged by corruption and witnessing chronic economic collapse.

Last week, Minister of Public Works and Transport Ali Hamiyah announced the signing of a contract to construct a new passenger terminal at the airport, with a capacity to accommodate about 3.5 million passengers annually.

And " Rafik Hariri International Airport ", the only passenger airport in Lebanon, has not witnessed any expansion projects since a huge workshop to rehabilitate and expand it ended in 1998.

According to the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, given the huge funds required by such a project, it has resorted to "attracting financing, investment and employment from abroad (...) without the public treasury bearing any burdens."

The ministry said that it had entered into an agreement with the Lebanese Air Transport Company (LAT), which has been operating at Beirut airport for decades, to “finance the entire project’s components,” at a value of $122 million, noting that a company owned by the government of Ireland will operate the new building for 25 years.

The move sparked criticism from private non-governmental organizations in terms of reaching a consensual agreement inconsistent with the public procurement law issued in 2021, and some questioned the authority of a caretaker government to decide on huge contracts in this way.

The head of the Public Procurement Authority, Jean Al-Alya, told AFP that "the contract did not pass the Public Procurement Authority for consideration" according to what is stipulated in a law issued in 2021, indicating that he is awaiting the decision of the Audit Bureau, which is supposed to take the legal position on the contract that was based on the law. It goes back to 1974.

Ten non-governmental organizations, including Transparency International-Lebanon, announced in a statement last week that the aim of the new public procurement law was to "put an end to years-long practices of non-transparent procurement and ineffective spending," noting that the airport contract "was illegal." .

The organizations warned of "serious abuses" in Lebanon in applying the law, "which opens the door to corruption and nepotism."

"The contract was reached by mutual consent and without a public bidding process, which raises questions about its transparency," Sybil Rizk of the Kulluna Irada organization, which signed the statement, told AFP.

Marc Daou, a deputy from the Changelings bloc, which emerged from a protest movement against the ruling authority accused of corruption, considered that outsourcing the airport "contradicts the principle of transparency of tenders and auctions," and "is a violation of the authority to conduct government business."

Faced with the controversy, Hamiyah announced that his ministry would deposit a detailed report with the Audit Bureau.

The International Monetary Fund, which is awaiting the implementation of urgent reforms to launch an aid plan for Lebanon, announced last week that the public procurement law must be "implemented quickly."

Since 2019, Lebanon has witnessed an economic collapse that is considered the worst in the country's history, coinciding with political paralysis and a vacuum in the presidency due to political divisions that have prevented the election of a president for nearly five months.

Therefore, the country is led by a caretaker government, which obstructs decision-making at all levels.

Lebanon ranks 150 out of 180 countries in the latest ranking of Transparency International's Corruption Index.