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The recent battle of tweets about criminal scrutiny between the head of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, that is, Kanaan, who is a deputy of the Change and Reform Block, and the Minister of Justice affiliated with President Aoun, who is part of the war in course between the banking party and the opposition party represented by the preparers of the government’s financial recovery plan. Soon, the matter was revealed with the input of other members of this club to support Canaan on the impossibility of conducting a criminal audit of the accounts of the Bank of Lebanon. The inability of the BDL army and its partners to hide their anger is what thwarted the government’s financial recovery plan under the guise of defending depositors, while defending the profits and privileges of banks at the cost of money stolen from the people. They found a new opportunity to offer obedience to the temple priests. Members of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, summoned by Najm in the “Financial Collapse Committee”, joined their chairman, once again to boast of abandoning the financial plan in exchange for floating the Banking Association plan that he wished to steal. state and people’s property.
From this point of view, Aouni’s MP Alan Aoun tweeted, saying: “Some blame the Finance Committee for opposing the financial plan of the ‘explosive belt’ for the resigned government … Aside from the legitimate economic-financial debate, they should have noticed that a parliamentary committee that crossed the blocks did not print as usual. On the packaged policies of the government, but restored the consideration of the oversight work of the House of Representatives. As did fellow conglomerate Ziad Aswad. They were joined by Nicolás Nahas, a deputy from the “Independent Center” bloc, who is also one of the most prominent spokespersons for the Bank party.
Subsequently, the head of the Free Patriotic Movement, Gebran Bassil, entered the line of disagreement, not to cloud it or clarify the current vision of what he himself and the President of the Republic Michel Aoun consider a national priority, but to add more ambiguity to this file. Bassil wrote on Twitter that “the criminal audit is a national duty and an absolute priority and a door for the scrutiny of all public spending. It shows the financial gap, explains the crimes and reveals the destination of the funds looted, gifted and transferred ”. He added that “the government must impose scrutiny by force of existing laws, Parliament must support and strengthen, and the Banque du Liban must respond immediately under the pressure of people’s rights. The current is unique and decisive on this requirement, and each talk about the presentation of an additional law, if necessary and if it is approved, is a matter of eagerness to complete the investigation and not hinder it.
Basil’s words, which contain neither truth nor falsehood, are not surprising. The head of the movement had previously used the same method when the financial advisor to the president of the republic, Charbel Qirdahi, participated in the negotiating delegation with the IMF, while Kanaan headed the “investigation” committee to overthrow the financial plan with the objective to give priority to the banks and their interests. It should be noted here, however, that Kanaan, in several of these events, became the leader of the bank defense project and whitewash its pages, previously among his colleagues: Elie Ferzli, Yassin Jaber and Ngola Nahas. MP Metni was always ready to abandon the projects of everyone who comes close to them, making a different rabbit each time. A year and a half ago, on April 4, 2019 in particular, the former Minister of Economy Mansour Bteish requested “clarification on the accounts of the Banque du Liban and the economic return of its operations”, for which Canaan responds at the time that ” the position of the reckless – his colleague in the powerful Lebanese bloc – a ‘personal opinion’ is not binding on the bloc. . In August 2019, President Aoun met in Beiteddine, an economic committee that included Bteish, Canaan, Ghazi Wazni, Adel Afiouni, Charbel Qirdahi, Roy Badaro, Abdel Halim Fadlallah, and Mazen Sweid, to prepare an economic document that later it was called the “Baabda Document”. In Canaan’s first meeting with the experts, the latter tried to “trick it” and “stylize” it, which made the President of the Republic uncomfortable, since the Canaán River was in front of the attendees before they removed it from the meetings. But there is an important question in the midst of everything that is happening, why are Aoun and Bassil silent about these crimes if they contradict their orientations?
People close to Bassil indicate that he is “biting the wound” to avoid partisan divisions at other times. The movement leader’s speech during his conference last Sunday to respond to the US sanctions on “traitors” indicates a great danger in terms of the biases of some parliamentarians and party officials who have long worked in the opposite direction in the interest of the movement. And what “he was walking between mines yesterday in his tweet just to avoid a bigger problem.”
On the other hand, there are those who believe that the lack of harmony in the files in the movement itself is intended because it serves Basil politically and benefits from both sides, taking into account that the Minister of Justice is not partisan and did not come with a nomination de Bassil, but at the suggestion of President Aoun. As for Najm, “If Canaan had not described her as a ‘minister of injustice,’ she would not have responded to him. The problem is in suggesting to people that criminal scrutiny is not possible without amending the laws. ” Therefore, it reiterates, although it does not oppose any legislative measure that confirms the principle of auditing the accounts of the Banque du Liban, that “the contract between the state and the Alvarez & Marsal Company, in its current form, is enforceable and it does not contradict current laws ”. He does not see the current debate as “legal. Rather, it is related to support for the rebellion by the governor of the Banque du Liban, who has faced a binding cabinet decision.” He recalled that the decision was made because “people have the right to know where their money has gone.”
The above returns the ball to the beginning, that is, to the ongoing war between the bank’s party and those who did not present their credentials. But it was notable that Kanaan lowered the roof of his remarks in his speech to “OTV” yesterday by saying that the “criminal audit” is more than a duty, and if the contract with “Álvarez” allows it, then it’s great. But if the situation requires a reform of the Cash and Credit Law, so be it. The debate is not understood in this context.
The Presidency of the Council of Ministers received from Al-Bustani a bill that obliged the Banque du Liban to cooperate with the Criminal Audit Company
On the other hand, questions arose about Canaan’s announcement on October 28 of a legislative initiative that included a bill that would allow criminal audits to be carried out on the accounts of the Banque du Liban without the bloc presenting the bill until now. At that point, Canaan asked, adopting Salameh’s point of view: “Wasn’t the person who signed the contract, whether government or through the army of advisers, was supposed to read the Lebanese laws and pay attention to them?” But he clarified again in his television interview yesterday that “the wording of the law came at the request of the President of the Republic (…) but we hope to present it until it is confirmed that the government cannot complete the verification without this law.”
Kanaan explained that the movement is slow to present its bill until it is certain that the government cannot complete the audit without it.
In a related context, the head of the interim government, Hassan Diab, asked the lawyer Naji al-Bustani, who participated in the meeting held in Saraya on November 5 with the representative of “Álvarez” and the governor of the Central Bank, in the presence of the ministers: Zeina Aker, Ghazi Wazni and Najem, to prepare a formula. For a bill that obliges the Banque du Liban to cooperate with the company involved in the criminal audit, going beyond its argument that Lebanese laws do not allow it. Al-Akhbar learned that the Presidency of the Council of Ministers received the form from Al-Bustani, which stipulated the following: “Exceptionally and for a period not exceeding eighteen months, the provisions of the Bank Secrecy Law and the Law of Cash and credit will not apply to the contract entered into by the Ministry of Finance with the Criminal Audit Company. ” The birth of this project requires a meeting of the Council of Ministers, which has not happened in the last period, although Al-Bustani, like other legal professionals, emphasized that this is possible given the legal norm that indicates that “the Needs allow prohibitions. ” However, to date no action has been taken, noting that relevant sources have previously indicated that such a meeting would be shameful for the Presidency of the Republic and the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, who signed a large number of exceptional decrees under the pretext that the Council of Ministers will not be convened during the interim period.
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