Corruption in Lebanon (Arabic: الفساد في لبنان) magnified after the end of the civil war in 1990. It has been described as a case of "post-conflict corruption."[1] Once a taboo subject, now it is at the forefront of the public debate in Lebanon.[2] Anti-corruption sentiment has been one of the driving forces behind many of the large scale Lebanese protests in recent history.
Transparency International's 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index, which scored 180 countries on a scale from 0 ("highly corrupt") to 100 ("very clean"), gave Lebanon a score of 24. When ranked by score, Lebanon ranked 149th among the 180 countries in the Index, where the country ranked first is perceived to have the most honest public sector.[3] For comparison with worldwide scores, the average score was 43, the best score was 90 (ranked 1), and the worst score was 11 (ranked 180).[4] For comparison with regional scores, the average score among Middle Eastern and North African countries was 34. The highest score among Middle Eastern and North African countries was 68 and the lowest score was 13.[5]
According to Charles Adwan, Director of the Lebanese Transparency Association, "the extension of wartime elites into the post-war political system, a common feature in, resulted in a system which removed all checks and balances and facilitated the diversion of state resources for private financial and political gain".[1] Government officials reportedly often award contracts to friends and family leading to many of the country's problems like daily power cuts. Many working class Lebanese citizens rely on economic assistance from their party which stops them from speaking up against the system or bring them to justice, despite widespread opposition.[6] [7] Lebanon's government works within the framework of confessionalism, with parliamentary seats and others government positions allocated by religious confession. Many members of government have been in power since the Lebanese Civil War, with a simple shuffling of positions every election cycle. Many blame this system for the country's continued corruption.
Corruption happens on every level of society and is not strictly limited to high level officials. As in many neighboring countries, using personal family and party connections to get favors like skipping a long queue, getting into a selective institution, or finding a job; known locally as wasta; is common practice and has become the social norm. Although many believe that using wasta is understandable for each individual case as institutions are often inefficient without it, it is also agreed upon that the social phenomenon deepens economic inequality.[8]
Anti-corruption sentiment has been one of the driving forces behind many of the large scale Lebanese protests in recent history. Notably the 2015–2016 Lebanese protests sparked by the closure of a waste dump without a plan which triggered a "garbage crisis"[9] and the 2019–2020 Lebanese protests sparked by an increase in taxes[10] [11]
Many anti-system parties run on an anti-corruption platforms, most notably Beirut Madinati, which ran during the 2016 Beirut municipal election.[12] Although the party lost, it gained unprecedented traction for an outsider party in Lebanon's otherwise rigid political status quo.[13] With 40% of the votes, it forced the March 14 Alliance and the March 8 Alliance, historical opponents, to form a coalition in order to win[14]
In July 2020, Lebanese company ZR Energy was indicted, as it had imported contaminated fuel from Algerian company Sonatrach, which costed $2bn worth of fuel deliveries per year.[15] [16] [17]
On 4 August 2020, an explosion at the port of Beirut killed at least 190 people, injured more than 6,500, and left an around 300,000 people homeless. The blast was caused by 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate that had been stored unsafely in a warehouse.[18]
There are some NGO's fighting corruption in Lebanon:[19]