A few days ago, the Directorate General of Public Security discovered the military involvement in facilitating the obtaining of passports by citizens in exchange for sums of money equal to 500 dollars. After his “exposure”, the soldier disappeared from sight, and was subsequently arrested.
It is not the first time that the Management has grasped a line of complicity between civil intermediaries and military personnel who facilitate the obtaining of passports for its applicants, stopping them and then referring them to the Discipline Council. However, this manipulation and fraud continued even after the Director General of Public Security, Major General Abbas Ibrahim, issued the decision to refer all requests for modification of appointments on the platform to the office of the Director General for viewing and personal verification.
In this context, Major General Abbas Ibrahim confirms to “ASAS” that he has made the decision to jointly prosecute the briber and briber in an attempt to curb fraud attempts to obtain a passport in exchange for sums of money.
This is an emerging and unknown reality in the process of obtaining the clear right of the Lebanese to possess or renew a passport. A reality imposed by the lack of passports, which still exists until further notice, and among its illogical translations there is the time lapse between the date of submission of the application on the platform and the determination of the date of carrying out the transactions, which is become over a year old.
However, urgent requests to obtain the passport are still possible through the office of the General Manager, where the presentation of an appointment for obtaining the passport on the platform is required, and after verifying the reasons for the delivery within a short time, the appointment is delivered.
And in a continuous reflection on the crisis, the Directorate General for Security has finally started delivering the passports of the old version of the 2003 model, which the Directorate has stopped using since 2016, which made a “leap” among the Lebanese on their suitability for international conditions and the possibility of not being accepted at airports around the world.
Ibrahim told ASAS that “management resorted to this procedure some time ago due to the depletion of its stock of biometric passports, as there are only a few left that did not meet the demand.”
150 thousand .. in October
The general manager confirms that “the first batch of biometric passports arrives at the beginning of November and there are 150,000 biometric passports out of the 400,000 that should have constituted the first batch”.
After the management overcame internal obstacles in terms of monitoring the requested funds, it emerged, according to Ibrahim, that there is an external problem in Europe which delays the delivery of passports within these same countries, which, of course, is it is reflected in a delay in the delivery of agreed quantities to requesting countries.
Dissolving any controversy, Ibrahim states that “2003 version passports, granted for up to five years, are internationally recognized by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), and therefore there is no problem in their adoption in airports around the world, of course, it was not possible to distribute them again to the Lebanese before obtaining international approval “, otherwise it would have been a disaster. He added: “The old passports will be approved until the biometric passports are received in early November.”
The management states that “there is no turning back from the decision to use the platform even after the arrival of all the payments required by the biometric passports”, noting that “this fact saves the passport applicant from the hassle of moving to the public security centers and the possibility that your request will not be resolved due to lack of documents or for any other reason. The timing of the platform reduces crowding in the centers and organizes the obtaining of a passport “.
Banks and guarantees
The batch of 150,000 biometric paspores that will arrive at the beginning of November is part of a quota that was supposed to be 1,100,000 paspores, sufficient for one year. But the amount was reduced to less than a million after the amount allocated fell from $ 14 million to $ 13 million. Between the approval of the allocation in the Chamber of Deputies and the opening of the allocation for the transfer of the amount, the price of the “exchange dollar” on the basis of which the amount was transferred increased, which resulted in a decrease of the value of the transferred amount with respect to the “fresh dollar”, for the difference between the two “dollars”. Then the French producer asked for “guarantees” with increased financial credit “because Lebanon is a country whose payment capacity is questionable”.
In short, we do not return soon to the normal situation that allows you to obtain a passport automatically, and the crisis could recur at any time.
Despite the great pressure exerted by Major General Ibrahim since July 2021 to provide the requirements to “release” the amount of money needed to be transferred to the French company, and despite repeated warnings of out of stock, the government has insisted, with its irresponsibility performance, that the Lebanese are dragged into the cycle of waiting for a lost passport for months, between the corridors of the government, the Banque du Liban and the Ministry of Finance, even if obtaining it is still hostage to unusual procedures.
This is how political authority excelled at perpetuating the reality of “arresting a people” and forbidding them to travel after impoverishing, plundering, humiliating and “burning” them with electricity, supermarket, gasoline, medicine, education and medicine bills. And when he decides to “let off steam” for a tourist trip abroad, or to immigrate in search of knowledge or work, or to “talk” in search of immigration and asylum, this government forces him to stay in his home, which is missing. electricity, air conditioning and water.
In fact, the Directorate General of Public Security launched a “government scandal” that reflected the stupidity of the authority and the failure to respect even its interest in facilitating the provision of credit for passports that generate billions, since the passport costs about 12 dollars. , while the citizen pays its value today, one million and 200 thousand lire later. The Council of Ministers has changed the price and this difference goes directly to finance.
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