...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...’s poorest families could soon start receiving monthly cash handouts after politicians gave approval on Friday to a $246-million World Bank loan to ease the impact of the country’s financial meltdown.
But in a nation where many people blame the crisis on corruption and mismanagement, some analysts questioned MPs’ decision to cut at least $5 million from allocations for oversight and so-called capacity building to prepare for future shocks.
That'll cut down on our grab for boodle! We can't have that!
The World Bank, which agreed the loan in January, could not immediately be reached to comment.
The financing aims to cut extreme poverty by half through household aid payments of up to 800,000 Lebanese pounds, equivalent to less than $100 per month, as well as boost social services and fund the education costs of 87,000 students.
Parliamentarians who backed the changes to the loan’s spending structure said more poor families would be able to benefit as a result.
Ibrahim Kanaan, chair of parliament’s finance and budget committee, said the alterations would reduce running costs and make the program "much better than it was before".
Kanaan told the Thomson Rooters Foundation he had lobbied to slash spending on capacity-building because "in the past this never did its job. Large portions where mis-spent ... there is a big margin for corruption".
Other changes voted by parliament included cutting funding for an independent third-party monitor by half and reducing the timespan of an external financial audit to one year from three.
Instead of hiring companies to verify the eligibility of families for the handouts and oversee the payments, parliament voted to hand that task to the social affairs ministry and volunteers.
Some financial analysts questioned the oversight cuts.
"What does Lebanon gain by slashing the budget for oversight and governance by a few million dollars while putting at risk the effective management of the $246 million program?" said Mike Azar, a senior financial adviser based in Beirut.