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Beirut: On Friday, the criminal audit company “Álvarez y Marsal” terminated its contract with the Lebanese party to audit the accounts of the Central Bank, after it was unable to obtain the required documents from the same, according to the Presidency of the Republic and the Ministry of Finance.
The termination of the contract occurred despite the announcement by the interim government’s Finance Minister, Ghazi Wazni, on the fifth of this month, to extend the deadline set for the Banque du Liban to deliver all the required data for a period of three months. after it failed to do so within the basic period included in the contract.
The Lebanese Presidency account on Twitter reported that Wazni informed the President of the Republic, Michel Aoun, that “he received a letter from Álvarez and Marsal to terminate the agreement signed with the Ministry of Finance for the forensic accounting audit, because the the company did not obtain the information and documents required to begin implementing its mission ”.
The forensic audit of the Bank of Lebanon accounts is the most prominent item in the economic recovery plan that the government approved months ago to negotiate with the International Monetary Fund. It was also mentioned in the provisions of the road map drawn up by France to help Lebanon emerge from the cycle of economic collapse.
The contract was signed in early September and work under it began on September 9. The Banque du Liban was supposed to provide the company with all the requested documents before the third of this month. Two days later, the term was extended by three months. However, Wazni said in Friday’s statement that the company has “doubts” about the possibility of obtaining the documents during the additional period.
The Central Bank confirmed in a statement on the fourth of this month, that “it delivered all the accounts that belong to it … according to the principles” at my weight. He said the state could “request a detailed disclosure of all its accounts and then hand them over to the authorities it deems appropriate to report them,” so that the Banque du Liban can avoid violating legally binding confidentiality laws.
The bank, a source told AFP, delivered only 42 percent of the required documents to the company.
However, officials at various levels denied it, accusing the Central Bank of obstructing the criminal scrutiny process, which Aoun highlighted “its importance in the field of necessary reforms.”
Acting Prime Minister Hassan Diab said “state accounts are not subject to bank secrecy.”
Since assuming the presidency of the government earlier this year, Diab has blamed the governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon, Riad Salameh, for the deterioration of the exchange rate of the lira against the dollar, in parallel to harsh criticism from various political parties. to the monetary policies adopted in recent years, considering that they accumulated debts. However, Salameh repeatedly defended himself stating that the Central Bank “financed the state but did not disburse the money.”
Since last year, Lebanon has witnessed an economic collapse that coincided with an unprecedented drop in the value of the lira. In March, the state defaulted on its foreign debts and then began negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, which were later suspended pending the unification of Lebanese negotiators, especially representatives of the government and the Bank of Lebanon, their estimates of the size of the losses and how to implement the reforms.
(AFP)
