The need to implement austerity measures caused a debate during Thursday’s cabinet session over the travels of Lebanese official delegation, amid talks on a new mechanism to be adopted in this regard.
On March 21st, the cabinet issued a decision tasking the Presidency’s Director General Antoine Choucair and the Cabinet’s Secretary General Judge Mahmoud Makieh to come up with a new mechanism for the travel plans of officials that aims at reducing the burden imposed on the State’s Treasury.
Sources told LBCI that the new mechanism includes a reduction in costs on several levels:
First, reducing the number of members of delegations participating in foreign conferences, meaning that a minister can no longer choose the number of delegation members for each trip,
Second, the identity of each delegation member taking part in a foreign conference will be checked, since the compensation paid by the state per day varies between a minister, a director general and a regular employee.
Moreover, the foreign conferences that require the participation of ministers will be determined and distinguished from other conferences that would require the participation of a lower rank delegation.
Third, defining the conferences that could be attended by Lebanon’s ambassadors or consuls who are already residing in the state hosting said conference, in order to avoid sending a delegation from Lebanon.
For more details, watch the full report in the video above