Official Report Blames Several Parties, Including Cabinet, for Red Diesel Scandal

An Audit Bureau report on the red diesel scandal has laid blame on the government, the consumer protection authority and the companies that made millions of dollars of profits, As Safir daily reported on Wednesday.

The newspaper said that the report of the Bureau’s prosecutor, Judge Bassam Wehbe, first blamed the government for not including an implementation mechanism in its decision to slash the Value Added Tax during a period of one month.

The report, according to As Safir, also slammed the consumer protection authority of the economy ministry for not monitoring the red diesel tanks and accused oil companies of making illegal profits by selling the subsidized fuel at non-subsidy prices after the end of the one-month period on Jan. 18.

Wehbe called for prosecuting all officials involved in the violations and recommended the finance and economy ministries to recover the profits made illegally, As Safir reported.

The report also said that oil refineries in Tripoli and Zahrani intentionally delivered red diesel to distribution companies in the last days of the one-month subsidy period that ended on Jan. 18 so that they could later sell them at non-subsidized prices.

It said that 101 companies, out of 215 licensed by the director-general of the oil refineries, were delivered the red diesel on the last day of the subsidy and in the early hours of Jan. 19.

The report lamented that residents mainly in mountainous areas failed to receive the household heating fuel as required given that the first objective of the government to subsidize red diesel was aimed at helping impoverished citizens.