How many of you out there would pay upfront a contractor to build your house before he even starts? The Lebanese government would and did:

A contractor who fled the country after being paid but before completing any work is responsible for delays in improvements at the Baabda Public Hospital, Health Minister Mohammad Jawad Khalifeh has said.

[…]

Addressing MPs Naji Gharios, Bilal Farhat, Hikmat Did and Alain Aoun along with a number of officials, Khalifeh explained that a contractor who was supposed to renovate the hospital had received his fee in advance and fled abroad.

What kind of paper-pushers do we have running these ministries? What did the government take as collateral, the company’s good intentions? How the hell did the company even prequalify and tender for the project? Was the project publicly tendered or did “someone  know someone who could did it for cheap”? I don’t know about you but someone needs to be dragged into the middle of the street and tarred and feather for such incredible blatant incompetence.

Health Minister Mohammad Jawad Khalifeh