The collection of public invoices becomes the main test of the campaign undertaken by Electricity of Lebanon. After the cuts were launched on 2 November, contacts and settlement commitments were reported between EDL and debtor administrations. However, the information available on 4 November does not give a consolidated amount actually received. A promise of payment therefore does not yet allow the financial result of the transaction to be measured.
The issue has also reached Parliament. On 3 November, Nabih Berri received the board of directors of EDL, chaired by Nassib Nasr. The delegation presented its strategy and programmes for the sector. However, this meeting is not valid for payment of arrears or adoption of a general timetable.
Collection of Government Invoices: Three Separate Steps
The campaign targets ministries, public institutions and municipalities. At the time of its launch, EDL had indicated that the measures concerned organizations that had not paid and had not contacted to regularize their situation. This can lead to negotiation before the entire debt is settled.
The commitments reported include partial payments and then monthly maturities. Their scope depends on the conditions chosen for each organization. The available statements do not indicate how many of these arrangements have already been signed or complied with.
Three steps must therefore be separated. The first is contact. The second is agreement on a timetable. The third is the registration of a payment by EDL. Only the latter establishes a recipe actually received.
An organization may have initiated a budgetary procedure without the money having yet reached the supplier. Conversely, a first payment can reduce liabilities without paying all invoices. A reliable balance sheet should clarify these situations rather than bring them together under the general term regularisation.
Accumulated arrears at different rates
The government’s electricity debt brings together bills from very different periods. The file distinguishes the old arrears, linked to the period 1992-2022 and at the rate of 1,500 pounds per dollar, from the subsequent billings calculated at 89,500 pounds. These two sets cannot be compared as if they corresponded to the same monetary basis.
The date of an invoice, the tariff applied and the amount outstanding must be known before any addition. A nominal total in pounds is not enough to measure the economic weight of decades spent. The old stock must also be distinguished from current consumption.
This separation concerns time frames. A payment allocated to a recent invoice does not prove that the old arrears are paid. Conversely, repaying part of the liability does not guarantee that the organization will regularly finance its future electricity.
Do not confuse interruption and interruption of service
The agencies concerned carry out different tasks: administration, municipal services, water or telecommunications. The loss of the EDL power supply may require a generator operation. It does not automatically prove that the service rendered to the public has ceased.
Ogero reported private public electricity centres and warned of a risk to communications. The operator did not announce a general breakdown of the telephone and the Internet. The monitoring shall establish separately the state of feeding and any disturbances actually detected.
On 4 November, MP Ibrahim Kanaan stated on X that the cuts had reached water facilities, particularly in the North Metn. He accused public officials of charging users for the consequences of unpaid payments. This political declaration is not an independent technical survey of affected sites.
On the same day, after a call by MP Bilal Abdallah, the director of the Beirut and Mount Lebanon water establishment, Rabih Khalifé, assured that the problem of the Iqlim al-Kharroub wells had been solved in order to ensure their operation and supply to the inhabitants. This announcement does not specify the amount of a payment or schedule. Therefore, it cannot be inferred that the corresponding debts were incurred.
EDL also requested that no names of cut-off organizations be circulated without confirmation. A list of debtor administrations should therefore not be transformed into a building map currently without current.
The expected balance sheet should cover receipts
The next status report should reconcile the amounts received, agreed deadlines and invoices that remain open. It would also identify reconnected sites and conditions for maintaining service.
At this stage, the reported contacts show a response from administrations to the campaign. They do not yet provide an quantified balance sheet of recovery. The amount of payments recorded by EDL remains the data necessary to measure what has actually changed since November 2.
Comments