Transparency, accountability, and proper administrative work are the only ways to hold the corrupt accountable, and they are some of the essential pillars of the new Lebanon we envision.

Citizenship

Adopting a series of legislations to protect citizen rights, including the following:

• The right to live with dignity and security, through equal access to public services such as education, health, job opportunities, senior citizens security and other basic public services
• The right to stable legal conditions, away from retroactive laws, decisions, and administrative policies
• The right to litigation in order to protect rights and interests
• The right to appeal administrative decisions in accordance with the law
• The right to be treated with respect, objectivity, and impartiality, without any discretionary measures
• The right to expect the state to maintain the confidentiality of the information citizens provide
• The right to participate, either directly or through representatives, in the discussion about taxation and the conditions for imposing it, as well as in discussions about public spending and national projects; also, the right to monitor how taxes are used so as to ensure good practices, in accordance with the principles of the Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• The right to free access to information and administrative documents, provided access is simplified and transactions, procedures and administrative processes are facilitated
• The right to access services on an equal basis, without any discrimination or favoritism based on affiliation, belief, or economic and social status, as stipulated in the Constitution

Transparency and Accountability

• Adopting the Independence of the Judiciary Law as presented by civil society bodies and associations, in a manner that frees the judiciary from the influence of the executive authority, and ensures judges are elected by their colleagues rather than appointed by government
• Adopting a Law to lift Banking Secrecy
• Abolishing the Supreme Council for the prosecution of presidents and ministers, and granting such authority to the judiciary body
• Adopting a Law that lifts the immunities accorded to ministers and public servants
• Amending the Illicit Enrichment Law to cancel the secrecy of the financial disclosure permits
• Adopting a modern Law that sponsors public procurement, whereby the Tender Department is exclusively responsible for soliciting bids and making all determinations related to tenders
• Ensuring that all supervisory bodies, especially the Audit Bureau and Central Inspection, are completely independent from political interference, and enforcing a series of measures to enhance transparency and stimulate accountability
• Appointing an Ombudsman and granting her/him broad powers to carry out her/his duties in defending the rights of all citizens, facilitating their dealings with the administration, and ensuring their right to access public services
• Activating the Anti-Corruption Law in the Public Sector and establishing the National Anti-Corruption Body in accordance with the provisions of the new Law No. 175 dated 8/5/2020
• Adopting the implementation decrees of the Whistle Blower Act to ensure their protection from any prosecution or reprisals
• Adopting the implementation decrees of the Right to Information Law to ensure absolute transparency
• Adopting a Law requiring the legislative, executive, judicial, and public administration authorities to automate all their activities
• Establishing a new department affiliated with the Personnel Administration in the Civil Service Council with a mission to organize and manage Human Resources in public administrations in order to increase productivity and rationalize employment spending
• Amending the Penal Code to criminalize voter bribery

Constitutional institutions

• Adopting the Administrative Decentralization Law presented based on Resolution No. 166/2012 in a manner that guarantees granting local authorities broad executive, administrative and financial powers in addition to adopt incentivized fiscal policies to ensure regional balance
• Amending the internal regulations of the Parliament in terms of:
  • Considering the abstention of any deputy for more than 20percent of the annual parliamentary sessions as an automatic resignation from parliament
  • Imposing a legislative quota on the deputies regarding the draft laws presented before the General Assembly, whereby each deputy is required to submit two bills annually
  • Imposing public electronic voting in all parliamentary sessions
  • Oblige the General Secretariat of Parliament to distribute the agenda ten days in advance in the case of ordinary sessions and before forty-eight hours in the case of extra-ordinary sessions
  • Broadcasting all sessions of the General Assembly and subcommittees public on an electronic platform specially created for this purpose
• Annulling lifetime compensations and allowances for MPs in addition to all taxation incentives
• Amending Article 32 of the Lebanese Constitution as to amend the parliamentary sessions dates, provided that “the Parliament convenes every year for two ordinary sessions. The first begins on the Tuesday following the fifteenth of March and continues its sessions until the end of June, and the second session begins the Tuesday following the fifteenth of September; its sessions are concerned with discussing and approving the budget before any other matter, and the session term shall last until the end of the year”. This allows the extension of the timeframe provided to deputies to discuss and deliberate on draft laws, especially the budget law, and also obliges the government to respect and shorten the deadlines

Public Finance

• Moving from budgeting based on balances to budgeting based on programs, skills required and performance, by adopting a new organizational division that specifies the tasks that fall under each program. This course of action is necessary in order to establish and nurture the principle of credibility and good performance - which is reliant on results and evaluations – and to apply it on both the preparation and the implementation of budgeting processes. Thus, the vote on the budget by parliament is given a real political meaning, that is, it allows for actual monitoring of the government's actions, which is grounded in the verification of the achievement of the result, instead of voting on the means granted to it, i.e. adopting the concept of "budgeting for results"
• Finding a balance between the monitoring authority granted to Parliament and the freedom that must be granted to the government in its management of public affairs. Judicial oversight entities must mediate between them, ensuring that they are allowed a margin of independence for tracking and auditing
• Introducing a functional classification of public expenditures aimed at improving transparency and analyzing budget objectives more clearly
• Adopting and managing a realistic and effective liquidity policy through the Liquidity Management Unit at the Ministry of Finance as an essential part of public spending management, with the aim of not exceeding what is approved in the budget in terms of liquidity, and avoiding unexpected borrowing or sudden tax measures during the fiscal year, which would disrupt financial policies
• Adopting modern technologies in the process of preparing the budget, as they insure a low margin of human error
• Establishing a specialized unit to study and analyze economic impact as well as data, indicators and statistics, in order to conduct a sound economic simulation and provide the executive and legislative authorities with adequate and accurate information to help them make and adopt decisions and assume responsibilities
• Tracking the implementation of the budget through periodic reports that the executive authority is committed to submitting, as well as monthly meetings for clarification purposes
• Securing an administrative unit affiliated with the legislative authority - or cooperating with it - to evaluate the budget and ensure its compatibility and consistency with the constitutional provisions
• Adopting a formal mechanism that allows citizens and civil society organizations to be included in the public debate prior to the approval of the budget; it must also protect the right of professional organizations and the major representative bodies to attend the Finance and Budget Committee meetings
• Developing laws in order to give the Audit Bureau a role and involve it in the process of preparing the general budget; that is, consulting it in the process of justifying or approving requests received from departments, as well as ensuring electronic linkages between the Audit Bureau and the rest of the departments and ministries, in order to activate cooperation and monitoring

Public Administration

• Establishing a fixed annual date for the distribution of municipalities' dues from the Independent Municipal Fund and mobile telecommunication revenues
• Abolishing the Council for Development and Reconstruction and the Southern Council and reinstituting the Ministry of Public Design that had been abolished by Legislative Decree No. 5 dated 01/31/1977
• Abolishing the High Relief Commission and replacing it with the National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority
• Annulling the Ministry and Fund of the Displaced after instituting a comprehensive plan with a specific timeframe to settle their condition
• Appointing a committee of technology, governance and informatics specialists to draft the e-government bill
• Assigning the Civil Service Council to conduct a comprehensive study to identify fallacious and unproductive jobs in the public administration in order to achieve a comprehensive reform of employment in the public sector while addressing employment irregularities and transferring surpluses from ministries and departments to fill vacancies and improve performance
• Restricting employment in the public administration to the Civil Service Council appointments and terminating contractual employment
• Allocating additional resources to the Central Statistics Directorate and activating its role to provide accurate and scientific data and statistics, in order to guide and assist the executive and legislative authorities in drafting and implementing Laws and Legislation and making them available to the public in accordance with the Right to Information Law
• Amending the Military Judiciary Law to limit the powers of the Military Court to disputes between military personnel exclusively
• Publishing an organizational chart on the website of each ministry, public administration, or independent public service, that highlights the prerogatives of organizations, interests and departments within their jurisdiction

Security

• Initiating the disarmament of Palestinian armed factions inside and outside the camps after setting up a plan that guarantees camp security and transfers the security responsibilities to the military and security agencies
• Taking all measures to control unchecked personal weapon use, through:
  • Tightening the conditions for purchasing and carrying weapons and limiting them to restricted categories
  • Establishing programs that incentivize the voluntary surrender of personal weapons
  • Tightening penalties to sanction the phenomenon of random shootings on special occasions