Prime Minister Hassan Diab on Wednesday received at the Grand Serail the Minister of Environment and Administrative Development Demianos Kattar, UNDP Resident Representative for Lebanon and interim Celine Moyroud, former MP Ghassan Moukheiber and Mr. Arkan El Siblani.

At the end of the meeting, Minister Kattar said:

“We met with HE Prime Minister Hassan Diab, in the presence of the UNPD team in charge of following up on the anti-corruption program in Lebanon. As you know, everyone followed the approval of the National Strategy on May 12, which represents a cumulative effort deployed by all the ministers who were in charge of the Ministry of Administrative Development and by all parliamentarians and contributing experts.

Today, we have launched with PM Diab the program of this Strategy. The program is based on working groups tasked with combating corruption. In this context, direct work leads to the expected outcome, and we will work with the team to implement the right to access information Act”.

Minister Kattar further announced that work will begin on Monday to form the National Anti-Corruption Commission, in addition to other working groups in charge of protecting whistle-blowers, in coordination with the Ministry of Justice, as well as the team in charge of reviewing all laws related to pursuing this dynamic strategy aimed at achieving anti-corruption follow-up mechanisms. He then noted that combating corruption was not a security or purely judicial act, but rather a path for everyone to engage in, including civil society, central and judicial authorities, parliamentary oversight entities through legislation and laws, as well as the government through the Ministerial Committee for Fighting Corruption. The Technical Follow up Committee hopes to see quick results, but through accurate and diligent paths, in fulfilment of citizens' desire.