Caretaker Telecommunications Minister Mohammad Choucair held a press conference on Thursday at the Ministry’s headquarters in central Beirut, during which he said that he submitted on February 15 the terms and conditions book to the cabinet which, in turn, instructed him to renew the contracts of the two mobile operator companies until December 31, 2019.
“The government gave the ministers a one month-long period to review the terms and conditions, and they went into a dispute in politics over one article related to accepting or rejecting the participation of a non-Lebanese company in the tender,” he explained.
Choucair pointed out that “when the contract deadline expired, he had to renew it, but will not shoulder this responsibility, in light of the public opinion's reaction.
“They want to blame me for the problems of the telecommunications sector for over 20 years. I, however, will only act as stipulated by the law," the minister stressed.
Commenting on the recruitment accusations, Choucair said "employment requires a cabinet decision; so how can I recruit 2100 employees? I am the only minister who has been assigned this ministry and yet made no recruitments into the Alfa and Touch companies.”