Withdrawal of a company authorized to carry out a “criminal audit” of the accounts of the Banque du Liban

The Álvarez y Marsal company, which was contracting with the Lebanese government to carry out the forensic audit of the accounts of the Central Bank of Lebanon, withdrew from the criminal audit because it did not receive sufficient information to carry out the audit.
The passage of the criminal audit was hampered by its collision with the “cash and credit” law, as the Central Bank of Lebanon was unable to answer the questions or provide the information requested by the company, in order to avoid the violation of the banking secrecy system in force in Lebanon. Providing this information to the company requires amendments to the “cash and credit” law, according to politicians, including officials from the “Finance and Budget Committee” of the Lebanese Parliament, while others, including the Minister of Justice of the interim government, Marie Claude Najm, and the head of the Administration and Justice Committee, MP George Adwan, providing this information does not require legal modifications.
Last summer, the Lebanese government signed a contract with the Álvarez y Misal company to audit it in the accounts and activities of the Central Bank of Lebanon. After starting its mission, the Central Bank gave the company only 42% of these files, citing the bank secrecy law.
Lebanese President Michel Aoun received the Acting Finance Minister Dr. Ghazi Wazni at the Baabda Palace yesterday at his request. Minister Wazni informed the President of the Republic that he had received a letter from the Alvarez y Marsal Company to terminate the agreement signed with the Ministry of Finance for the criminal accounting audit.
The text of the letter indicated that the withdrawal is due to the fact that “the company did not obtain the information and documents necessary to begin to fulfill its mission, and its uncertainty of reaching such information, even if it was given an additional period of three months to deliver the necessary documents for the criminal audit of the accounts of the Banque du Liban “.
Wazni explained that the President of the Republic informed him that “this new matter definitely requires taking the appropriate measures that are required by the interests of Lebanon.”
Earlier this month, the director of the company “Álvarez y Marsal”, which is mandated to conduct a forensic audit of the Bank of Lebanon accounts, explored the extent of Lebanon’s ability to provide sufficient information from the Central Bank to for the company to start working.
Consequently, the Lebanese authorities extended the time required to deliver the necessary documents to the company for a further three months, in order to ensure a criminal audit of the accounts of the Banque du Liban, which was in conflict with the “bank secrecy” law. previously.
The dispute over the criminal scrutiny between the Lebanese government and the political forces sparked disagreements that led to disagreements between the representative and government teams of the President of the Republic. The “Lebanese Forces” party also pushed for a criminal audit of the Bank of Lebanon ‘s financial accounts and the state’ s financial accounts by proposing, last Wednesday, a law to suspend some provisions of the bank secrecy law.