In a joint statement addressing the issue between the General Director of Cooperatives at the Ministry of Agriculture Gloria Abi Zeyd and the Minister of Agriculture Ghazi Zaiter, the president of the Independence Movement Michel Moawad, and former MP Jawad Boulos said:

“At the start of the new Presidential Mandate we would have hoped that some ministers would have left behind their old practices of maliciousness and of overriding laws to achieve private gains and personal, financial or sectarian interests. But it looks like the Minister of Agriculture Ghazi Zaiter insists on keeping the same trend, which he seems to have gotten used to. The trend of exceeding his powers, and misusing the laws to try and remove the General Director of Cooperatives Ms. Gloria Abi Zeyd from her position.  Ms. Abi Zeyd, on the other hand, is well known to all the Lebanese citizens and to responsible authorities for her integrity, her honesty, her abiding to all rules and regulations, and her refusal for any bypassing of laws or favoritism.

The unfair decisions that Minister Zaiter has taken in violation to existing laws, is a clear infringement to the powers of the Ministerial Cabinet. Zaiter’s attempt to remove Abi Zeyd from her position as the General Director of Cooperatives at the Ministry of Agriculture is clear to everyone, and denotes an unethical tendency to exploit his position in order to achieve personal interests.

Restituting Abi Zeyd’s stature is restituting the stature of all the honest public employees in the government, who unfortunately have become a minority these days… This restitution will also confirm that the evaluation of an employee does not depend on the moods of any minister, but falls under the exclusive competence of the official supervisory institutions. It does not depend on the employee’s allegiances or his subduing to demands that go against the laws.

We put the aggression that Ms. Gloria Abi Zeyd has been subject to in the hands of the President of the Republic, who is entrusted with the protection of the Constitution and the laws, and in the hands of the Prime Minister and the whole Cabinet. We also put it in the hands of the ‘political guardian’ of Minister Zaiter, and we are referring to the President of the Assembly Nabih Berri, to put an end to Zaiter’s unfair practices and law infringements.

We consider that what has happened holds serious indications. We will follow up on the matter and will not keep quiet on Zaiter’s practices. We will not accept anything less than the full restitution of the General Director of Cooperatives’ stature.