Conflict of Interest Haunts Tunisia’s PM

Tunisia's Prime Minister Elyes Fakhfakh speaks during a handover ceremony in Tunis, Tunisia February 28, 2020. REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi
Tunisia's Prime Minister Elyes Fakhfakh speaks during a handover ceremony in Tunis, Tunisia February 28, 2020. REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi
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Conflict of Interest Haunts Tunisia’s PM

Tunisia's Prime Minister Elyes Fakhfakh speaks during a handover ceremony in Tunis, Tunisia February 28, 2020. REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi
Tunisia's Prime Minister Elyes Fakhfakh speaks during a handover ceremony in Tunis, Tunisia February 28, 2020. REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi

Tunisian Prime Minister Elyes Fakhfakh faces accusations of exploiting his position in government to achieve personal gains as the parliament is gearing up to grill him in a plenary session.

Local dailies dealt with a scandal known as the ‘Fakhfakh Gate’, after documents were leaked exposing the PM committed a grave violation.

A wave of accusations targeted Fakhfakh after it was revealed that he is a shareholder in a private company which won a public tender.

This forced the PM to abandon his shares in the company, but his move wasn’t seen enough because it had already won a bid worth $15.4 million.

Despite that Fakhfakh had relinquished his shares in all companies dealing with the state because it places him at a conflict of interest, calls for holding him accountable persisted. The opposition and some political parties are calling for investigation into how Fakhfakh had benefited from those dealings.

Democratic bloc lawmaker Nabil Hajji demanded that the premier resigns should there be evidence that he personally benefited from his place in government and that he violated the law.

Hajji called for the counter corruption committee in parliament to open an investigation into the matter.

Independent lawmaker Yassine al-Ayari published a document showing that Fakhfakh is a capital investor in a company that won two government bids.

Ayari wrote to Mohammed Abbou, the state minister responsible for counter corruption, questioning about the conflict of interest and illicit enrichment Fakhfakh is being tied to.

Abbou, for his part, ordered assigning a competent supervisory body to investigate the charges against the prime minister and to extend a report to parliament as soon as possible. He also ordered a copy of all contracts signed with companies involving Fakhfakh.

Ayari stressed that the law requires the prime minister to give up any other responsibility before assuming his official duties, and to instruct others to dispose of his shares, within a maximum period of 60 days after he assumed office.



UN: More Than One Million Syrians Returned to Their Homes Since Assad’s Fall 

A boy looks out from inside a tent in al-Roj camp, Syria, on January 10, 2020. (Reuters)
A boy looks out from inside a tent in al-Roj camp, Syria, on January 10, 2020. (Reuters)
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UN: More Than One Million Syrians Returned to Their Homes Since Assad’s Fall 

A boy looks out from inside a tent in al-Roj camp, Syria, on January 10, 2020. (Reuters)
A boy looks out from inside a tent in al-Roj camp, Syria, on January 10, 2020. (Reuters)

More than one million people have returned to their homes in Syria after the overthrow of Bashar Al-Assad on Dec. 8, including 800,000 people displaced inside the country and 280,000 refugees who came back from abroad, the UN said on Tuesday.

“Since the fall of the regime in Syria, we estimate that 280,000 Syrian refugees and more than 800,000 people displaced inside the country have returned to their homes,” Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, wrote on the X social media platform.

“Early recovery efforts must be bolder and faster, though otherwise people will leave again: this is now urgent!” he said.

Last January, the UN's high commissioner for refugees urged the international community to back Syria's reconstruction efforts to facilitate the return of millions of refugees.

“Lift the sanctions, open up space for reconstruction. If we don't do it now at the beginning of the transition, we waste a lot of time,” Grandi told a press conference in Ankara, after returning from a trip in Lebanon and Syria.

At a meeting in mid-February, some 20 countries, including Arab nations, Türkiye, Britain, France, Germany, Canada and Japan agreed at the close of a conference in Paris to “work together to ensure the success of the transition in a process led by Syria.”

The meeting's final statement also pledged support for Syria's new authorities in the fight against “all forms of terrorism and extremism.”

Meanwhile, AFP reported on Tuesday that displaced people are returning to their neighborhoods in Homs, where rebels first took up arms to fight Assad's crackdown on protests in 2011, only to find them in ruins.

In Homs, the Syrian military had besieged and bombarded opposition areas such as Baba Amr, where US journalist Marie Colvin was killed in a bombing in 2012.

“The house is burned down, there are no windows, no electricity,” said Duaa Turki at her dilapidated home in Khaldiyeh neighborhood.

“We removed the rubble, laid a carpet” and moved in, said the 30-year-old mother of four.

“Despite the destruction, we're happy to be back. This is our neighborhood and our land.”

Duaa’s husband spends his days looking for a job, she said, while they hope humanitarian workers begin distributing aid to help the family survive.