BEIRUT: Amid fury over severe electricity cuts across the country, Sidon officials formed a committee Thursday to visit President Michel Sleiman and Prime Minister Najib Mikati to pressure the leaders to address the electricity crisis and to mobilize municipalities across the country to do the same.

Separately, retired Judge Aouni Ramadan, the head of the government’s Court of Accounts, said an investigation would be finalized within 10 days into allegations that distribution companies profited illegally by purchasing $80 million of red gasoil that was exempt from value-added tax but made the gasoil available to consumers only after the government resumed charging VAT.

Ramadan said he sent two auditors to north Lebanon Thursday to look into the matter at the Deir Ammar petroleum facilities, from which most of the distribution firms received the gasoil.

Gathering at Sidon’s municipal offices, MPs and prominent figures from the city agreed to establish a joint committee from the Sidon-Zahrani municipal union to control the prices of electricity and the numbers of hours of power supplied by private generator owners.

Speaking during the event, former Prime Minister and Sidon MP Fouad Siniora blamed successive Free Patriotic Movement energy ministers for the delay in implementing power production projects.

Siniora, who heads former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s Future bloc, said Lebanon would be in need of 1,500 Megawatts to meet increasing demand in three years, arguing that the past three should have been used to increase energy production but had been wasted.

Siniora said that during his tenure as a prime minister in 2009, then-Energy Minister Alain Tabourian, an FPM official, rejected offers by Arab development funds to immediately finance the construction of power plants.

He added that Energy Minister Gibran Bassil, also from the FPM, still rejects any support from Arab funds, even after Parliament passed a $1.2 billion draft law in September to boost Lebanon’s power supply by 700 MW and which stipulated that the ministry seek the support of Arab funds.

“A month ago, the minister [Bassil] received representatives of funds after the Cabinet insisted he do so, but he told them, ‘I don’t want you, I have $1.2 billion from the Treasury,’” said Siniora. “This wasn’t right.” But speaking to LBCI Thursday night, Bassil said he had accepted a $150-million loan from the Saudi Fund for Development and other loans from other funds, but lamented the amount of time to it took to process the required paperwork.

“We are talking about an emergency plan [to improve electricity] ... I am hungry, I want to eat in the afternoon rather than tomorrow,” he said.

Commenting on accusations that he was responsible for the red gasoil scandal currently under investigation, Bassil said it was the responsibility of the Economy Ministry’s Consumer Protection Department to monitor the distribution process.

Many politicians have questioned how Bassil could have been unaware that the distribution companies were hoarding red gasoil one day before the value-added tax was reintroduced.

The government, and Bassil in particular, has come under attack recently as most parts of the country have faced a month of severe power outages.

Siniora said that seeking the support of outside development funds was desirable because they offer long-term loans, of around 20 years, and at a “very low” interest rate ranging between 2.5 percent and 3 percent. The former prime minister also said that when funds offer loans, they follow up on the contract-awarding process and other steps, ensuring the transparency of the entire operation.

Siniora said that Bassil was attempting to sow tensions by saying that Beirut receives a greater share of power supply than other parts of the country.

“Some might say this is unjust, but actually, the capital is the driving force of the economy,” Siniora said. “The problem is how we can produce more energy.”

Beirut receives 21 hours of electricity a day, while most regions get eight to 12 hours of power.

Touching on the ongoing protests against electricity shortages, Siniora said that “burning tires does not produce new kilowatts of electricity."

Sidon MP Bahia Hariri and other local figures also spoke at the event. Hariri said that she was not against a recent call by FPM leader Michel Aoun for the Lebanese to protest the electricity crisis, but wondered whether such a move would have a real effect.

For his part, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said the group calling for protests is itself responsible for the Energy Ministry. “Instead of calling for a popular protest ... why doesn’t the energy minister cut power to those not paying the fees?” asked Geagea during a news conference at his residence in Maarab.

The LF leader also asked why regional development funds were not being sought to finance electricity projects instead of banks, when the government lacks sufficient funds to implement the electricity plan. “Is it because they [regional funds] supervise implementation?”

Geagea said that Bassil could not be held responsible for negligence in the electricity sector over the past 20 years. “But we hold the current Cabinet responsible for not doing something on this issue.”

Protests against Electricite du Liban and Bassil continued across the country as dozens of young people from the southern villages of Toul, Harouf, Doueir and Zibdin blocked the main road connecting Nabatieh to Doueir near the intersection near Sheikh Ragheb Harb hospital in Toul Wednesday night.

The protesters chanted slogans against EDL and Bassil and urged MPs from the district to take action. Other protesters blocked the Bshamoun-Aley highway for more than one hour and called upon Bassil to resign.

But Bassil said most of those protesting against electricity cuts do not pay electricity bills, adding that certain ministers inside the Cabinet, who are being influenced by the March 14 coalition, were “fighting” projects to improve the electricity sector. – Additional reporting by Mohammed Zaatari