Electricity in Lebanon: IMF confirms stalemate in a captured sector

The government is once again trying to revive reforms in the energy sector. But on the ground, progress remains limited, with obstacles still piling up. Last September, the authorities finally established the Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA), a cornerstone of reforms in the sector set out in a law passed in 2002 but never implemented.Yet the regulator remains underfunded and struggles to become fully operational. Its chairman Mohammad Marwan Jamal has often been running its affairs from abroad, due to what insiders describe as "a lack of the financial credits needed for operations and management." Read more From taxation to customs, the IMF indicts Lebanon’s public finances management So far, its main decision has been to suspend new contracts with service providers working with Électricité du Liban (EDL) in order to...