In spite of widespread, frequent power cuts affecting the population, various Lebanese governments have failed to fix Lebanon’s electricity problems. “The main issue with the electrical sector is the lack of continuity brought by the various administrations and not corruption,” says Ziad Hayek, secretary general at the Higher Council for Privatization. According to an electricity expert working with the Lebanese government to improve the sector, up until 1994 ministerial decisions had to be approved not only by the minister in charge but also by the director general of the ministry. The expert spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to comment to the media. But, he says, starting in 1994, the power of the ministry’s directors was overturned by a decision of the Shura Council, Lebanon’s highest court. “This decision may have accounted for many of the problems faced today by the electricity sector,” the expert says. “Each program that
