[ad_1]
Lebanese President Michel Aoun said on Saturday that the criminal audit of the Lebanese Central Bank is necessary to combat corruption, and stressed that he will take the necessary measures to get it back on track after the withdrawal of a consulting firm hired to carry out the audit.
In a televised address on the occasion of the 77th anniversary of Lebanon’s independence, President Aoun added that “barricades of interest” were set up to obstruct the scrutiny process, which he described as a fundamental requirement of foreign donors and the International Monetary Fund to help Lebanon emerge from financial collapse.
Aoun described the withdrawal of an international auditing firm, Alvarez & Marsal, as a “setback to the logic of establishing the state, since criminal auditing is the gateway to all reform.”
On the anniversary of his country’s independence, the Lebanese president warned that Lebanon had become “a prisoner of a system of political, financial and administrative corruption covered with various types of shields” and “a prisoner of dictates, external disputes and hostilities. internal that make independence, sovereignty and democracy only empty words “.
I will not back down on the criminal financial audit issue, whatever the obstacles, and will take the necessary steps to get back on track …
The deputies call on the nation to fulfill its legislative duty, on the basis of which the people have placed their trust in them.
I call on the media to fight this battle with all honesty and transparency, because this is the true scenario to fight corruption.– General Michel Aoun (@General_Aoun) November 21, 2020
The reason for the withdrawal
On Friday, the company justified the suspension of its work by not obtaining the required information and documents, and its uncertainty of reaching that information, despite having obtained earlier this month to extend its work for 3 months to receive the required documents. .
President Aoun, his current and some of his allies accuse the Governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon (Central Bank), Riad Salameh, of delaying the presentation of the required documents to the auditing company, in order to avoid exposing the violations committed by Salameh.
However, the governor of the Banque du Liban stresses that bank secrecy laws prevent him from presenting the accounts requested by the auditing firm, except in the presence of an exceptional law promulgated by Parliament.
The failure of the criminal audit of the Central Bank accounts would delay the implementation of the reforms demanded by international donors, in exchange for providing financial support to the Lebanese government to overcome the economic crisis in the country.
Lebanon has been suffering for months an economic crisis that is the worst since the end of the civil war, in addition to severe political polarization, in a scenario in which the interests of regional and western countries collide, and from time to time Protests arise demanding accountability for the corrupt and the ruling class.
Diab statement
Acting Prime Minister Hassan Diab said last Friday that corruption “won a new round”, in response to the international audit firm’s announcement of its withdrawal from the audit of Bank of Lebanon accounts.
On November 3, Diab demanded that the Central Bank hand over all documents to the auditing company, considering that “any attempt to obstruct the audit is classified as a company responsible for causing the suffering of the Lebanese financially, economically and in life. “.
[ad_2]
