Information Minister Ghazi Aridi criticized the government’s overall performance during a conference on transparency and sharing information Tuesday, describing public administration as “dismal.”
The fourth Audio-Visual Conference was organized by the office of Minister of State for Administrative Development Fouad Saad, along with the European Union, which was represented by its ambassador, Patrick Renauld, and the Audio-Visual Studio at the Lebanese University’s Faculty of Information and Documentation.
Calling bureaucratic administration “frankly dismal,” Aridi said his ministry was “making efforts … to improve the performance of the administration, but it’s all for naught because it doesn’t have the right to make the final decision.”
“If I’m asked … about this administration and how it works and serves the public, I’d say the experience so far has not been encouraging and the reality … doesn’t give any real hope,” he said.
He said the Civil Service Council, “the backbone and central nerve that drives the administration,” was not functioning, and that this had put “thousands of employee affairs on hold.”
Aridi called for boosting the role of the country’s municipalities, but said they were hamstrung by underfunding from the Independent Municipalities Fund. He also said numerous municipalities are engaged in cost-effective, productive projects that need media coverage “but … we don’t hear of them because of a lack of cooperation between government entities.”
For his part, Renauld spoke of the significance of local media, saying the conference came in the wake of a general renewal of local government.
“When the (1998) municipal elections took place … their teams (were) engaged in important programs that enhanced efficiency … It began with a good communication and information system,” Renauld said.
“Everyone has the right to be informed,” he added. “The community needs to be informed about the functions of its municipality and its decisions.” He called this “the basis of democracy for every country.”
Khalil Hajal, director-general of Local and Municipal Councils and Administration at the Interior Ministry, encouraged the government to “be transparent and fair in its dealings with the public,” particularly the “decision-making process.”
For his part, Saad outlined the obstacles to postwar administrative reform, saying the bureaucracy had “lost its continuity with the modern world” and the latest technology.
He said computer training was introduced to improve an aging administration that works with codes from the 1960s in a deteriorating, cash-strapped environment.

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