This story originally appeared on TIMEP’s website.

In February 2022, the French-Lebanese company CMA CGM was awarded a 10-year contract to manage, operate, and maintain Beirut port’s container terminal in a deal the shipping giant says will see $33 million invested into the port. CMA CGM is the world’s third largest container-shipping firm and also controls the container terminal in Tripoli—Lebanon’s second largest city—and has a presence in Syria’s port city Latakia. While the company’s profile may make it the natural choice to operate the container terminal in the Beirut port, the bidding process’ lack of transparency raises concerns that the Lebanese government and political establishment have failed to learn any lessons from the conditions that led to the August 2020 disaster.

Familiarity with Lebanon’s shipping sector

CMA CGM was already familiar with Lebanon’s shipping sector. Before the August 4, 2020 blast, the company handled 29 percent of the total traffic at Beirut’s port and 83 percent at Tripoli’s. The container port did not sustain as much damage as the rest of the port, meaning it is largely still operable. However, little information has been made public on the bidding process that saw CMA CGM winning the 10-year contract at the Beirut port.

“There was no transparency at all whatsoever,” said Fady Abboud, a former minister of tourism from 2009-14 as part of now President Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement bloc. Abboud spoke to TIMEP from his office outside Beirut. “They probably would have won [the contract], but it has to be very transparent with open data. Maybe [CMA CGM] is the best choice but not in this way.”