The report on the operations of the Central Inspection department for the year 2001 listed numerous transgressions in various government administrations, a sample of which have been listed below.

Violations


Lebanese University
This concerns the payment of salaries to professors at the Lebanese University prior to the consent of the Auditor’s office and the availability of the necessary funds. The university had asked some professors and general directors to proceed with instruction before their contracts were issued and approved.

Ministry of Public Health
784 boxes of medication to be distributed by the ministry, free of charge to patients suffering from renal deficiency, were reported missing.

Ministry of Finance
The embezzlement of public money in the amount of LL 60 million from one of the ministry’s disbursement offices.

Consular offenses
The Consul to one of Lebanon’s international offices bought and renovated his residence for $729,000 whereas the investigation by the Central Inspection revealed that the amount should not have exceeded $424,000. This consul has also committed other offenses, such as specifying $1,000 per month to move the diplomatic bag (communications between the consulate and the Lebanese government) an average of 4 times per month.

Ministry of Transportation
The Ministry of Transportation gave $465 in monthly compensation to the board of directors of the Center of Civil Aviation Safety for meetings conducted after official working hours. The Central Inspection department considered such compensation a violation of rules that govern the work of public institutions.

Council for the Execution of Construction Projects
This council paid $15,000 to an audit bureau that had violated its contract by providing inaccurate figures and operations in the audit report.

Ministries of Social Affairs and Public Health
One nursing home was found to be collecting double the compensation fees for 40 senior citizens, with payment from both the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Ministry of Pubic Health. Another nursing home was discovered to be taking payments for 101 senior citizens, while only caring for 50. In addition, some of these institutions receive varying amounts of money from relatives of the seniors being cared for.

 

Ministry of the Displaced
Two employees that left the ministry to perform their military service were found to be listed as paid employees, with colleagues collecting their salaries on their behalf.

Ministry of Education
The ministry distributed science equipment to public high schools as a part of a project funded by the Islamic Bank to develop science education in Lebanon. However, falsifications were found in the specification and brand of the delivered items. For example, items paid for from the Thompson company, turned out to be from the Murakami or Oska companies.

Penalties

In terms of penalties undertaken by the Central Inspection department in the years 1999-2001, these were distributed according to the employee categories as shown in Table 1.

The Central Inspection department also conducted investigations into the status of employees and contractors at different ministries, many of whom have been dismissed or transferred to the disciplinary General Assembly.

Crimes and violations that some of the employees have been convicted of include the following, listed by ministry:

• Ministry of Telecommunications: Drug cultivation, forgery and falsification, stealing electrical power, interference in kidnapping.

• Ministry of Public Health: Fraud and theft.

• Ministry of Culture - Directorate of Archeological sites: Murder, theft and cheating.

• Ministry of Agriculture: Murder, theft, drugs and prostitution.

• Ministry of Education: Theft, cheating and disposing of stolen funds.