Parliament ratified a law allowing the government to auction two cellular licenses on Thursday, after Prime Minister Rafik Hariri offered a spirited defense of his Cabinet’s handling of the affair.
The lack of major amendments and the ease with which voting finally took place indicated the fruit of intensive political consultations to endorse the draft, which has provoked controversy in recent weeks.
Sixty MPs endorsed the law and 12 ­ Salah Honein, Omar Karami, Mikhael Daher, Nicolas Fattoush, Nazih Mansour, Mohammed Yaghi, Salim Saade, Hussein Husseini, Butros Harb, George Kassardji, Mohammed Safadi and Marwan Fares ­ voted against.
Hariri said the government would “make all efforts to ensure this finishes by Aug. 31,” indicating that either an international tender or auction would deal with the sector, with no room for a third alternative.
Hariri did not introduce a draft law proposal for addition to the cellular law, which would have banned officials and their relatives up to the fourth degree who are associated with privatization operations from owning shares in the companies that take over the network, up to two years after they leave their posts. Political sources said a general consensus that the amendment was unnecessary saw its removal from debate.
As endorsed by Parliament, the law allows the government to issue two licenses for the cellular network through auction and for a maximum period of 20 years. It also stipulates that tendering for management for a maximum of 10 years will be simultaneously undertaken. Both operations will take place based on a specifications book to be set up by a specialized international company, under a July 31 deadline. Contracts should be signed and the new companies should take over before Aug. 31, after the government decides which offer to choose.
The House added a clause to the draft, asking for an irrevocable banking guarantee for both auction and tendering for management, for a one year period annually renewable during the entire license period.
In the case of auction, this guarantee would be equal to 40 percent of the companies’ annual revenues ­ with 2001 as an indicative year ­ and to the sum of profit plus taxes in the case of tendering for management.
On Wednesday evening, Hariri responded to MPs’ questions on the cellular issue, saying his government had prepared a draft law that “followed procedures used in the most advanced countries as well as dues contingent on the state to pay for rescinding contracts.”
Husseini, who had raised the issue of the law’s unconstitutionality, saw his argument undercut at the session’s outset by Zahle MP Nicolas Fattoush, who had met earlier in the day with Speaker Nabih Berri.
Fattoush argued that Article 65 stipulates government responsibility for issuing executive decrees that include all the details involving legislation endorsed by Parliament.

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