NNA – Caretaker Minister of Communications, Johnny Al-Qarm, said, “President Mikati informed the ministers during the consultative meeting that was held after the cabinet session that there will be no other session in the near term, and that President Mikati invited them to a new consultative meeting if the other opposition party agrees on the day.” Next Monday at four o’clock in the afternoon at the Government Houses.
Al-Qarm said that he “was communicating with the Minister of Industry, George Boshkian, and he was not satisfied with the statement issued in the name of the nine boycotting ministers, and that since yesterday he did not agree to boycott the session, but he wanted to attend.”
He added: “Minister Al-Hajjar came to the Grand Serail with a specific mission to request the suspension of the session so that a dialogue could take place before it convenes, but the session took place and the dialogue and consultation session took place afterwards. President Mikati reviewed what was stated in the constitution and what was stated in the internal system of the Council of Ministers and said that there was no violation “.
In an interview with Al-Hurra channel within the “Lebanese Scene” program, Al-Qarm confirmed that President Mikati “has no intention of assuming the powers of the President of the Republic, and he has no intention of clashing. The Presidency of the Council of Ministers did not replace the Presidency of the Republic, and we must agree on what can be done as a minimum.
Regarding the cabinet decision related to the 26 million dollars in the account of the Ministry of Communications, Al-Qarm explained that “the work with the Ministry of Finance obtained a legal formula that stipulates that the amount of 26 million dollars be transferred from the account of the Ministry of Communications to the account of the Ministry of Finance, and then from the Ministry of Finance to the Ogero Authority.” And he considered that “this amount is sufficient to secure the expenses of the telecommunications sector for about six months. The expenses of diesel fuel, the necessary investment expenses, maintenance expenses and the expenses of the cost of data that we buy from abroad.”
As for the sit-in of the employees of the cellular sector, he was surprised by this sit-in and did not find any justification for it. And he considered that “things must be dealt with slowly. Their goal is to increase salaries for everyone by 20%, and this is impossible.” He pointed out that “the increase for some occurred because the administration had informed us of the departure of a large number of experts, and there were some increases for some experts.” He explained, “The average salary of cellular employees per month is $2,500. Today, they receive 25% of fresh dollars, and sooner or later the entire amount will become fresh. This means that I will pay 35% of the income as employee salaries, so should I make it 45% for salaries?!”.
In response to a question about the discrepancy regarding the strike between Alfa employees and Touch employees, Al-Qarm expressed his fear that the background of this sit-in would be political, as the country is divided, Alfa is affiliated with one political side, and Touch is on the other. Between “the future” and “hope”. This reality is unfortunately, and I am ashamed to talk about such a subject, and I hope that the background is not political.
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