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A company delegation is currently visiting Lebanon to continue investigating the process of obtaining the information and required accounts from the Banque du Liban, while the latter confirms that it has delivered to the company what the law allows through of the Ministry of Finance, insisting that the bank secrecy law does not allow him to provide the company with the data he requested.
Between this and that, observers, including former Minister Mansour Bteish, ask: “How can Deloitte and E&Y conduct a periodic accounting audit of BDL accounts, which also allows information to be provided to Oliver Wyman and PWC, while refusing to give Alvarez & Marsal what it requests to carry out a criminal and focused accounting audit? Commissioned by the government, to reveal how billions of dollars of people’s money were spent, describing what is happening as a “policy of evasion.”
Response from Banque du Liban
A statement issued by the Banque du Liban clarified that “with reference to the letter from the Minister of Finance, which included a study from the Minister of Justice, based on the advice of the Legislation and Consultation Commission of the Ministry of Justice, in which it literally considered “that the banking secrecy observed in Lebanese legislation does not apply to state accounts AND the accounts of the Banque du Liban, and after deliberation in the Central Council of the Banque du Liban today, November 4, the Banque du Liban confirms that it has handed over all its accounts to the Minister of Finance in accordance with the rules.
Regarding state accounts, the Lebanese state can request a detailed statement of all its accounts. Then hand it over to those who deem it appropriate to report it. This prevents Banque du Liban from violating legally binding confidentiality laws, the violation of which carries criminal consequences.
The Banque du Liban regretted in its statement that “recently newspapers (including Al Alamiah) and social networks have published the information and data provided to Alvarez & Marsal by the Ministry of Finance, which constitutes a violation of the law and the provisions of the contract. signed between the latter and the aforementioned company “.
The bank also confirmed that it had provided in accordance with the law all the documents requested by the auditing firms KPMG and Oliver Wyman. Additionally, Banque du Liban has engaged two international companies to audit its accounts since 1994.
My weight and A&M
Today, the Minister of Finance in the interim government, Ghazi Wazni, held a meeting with Daniel James, director of Alvarez & Marsal, who is responsible for the criminal audit of the accounts of Banque du Liban, and discussed with him the options that will be taken on the subject of the contract during the next 24 hours.
James said after the meeting: “We came to assess whether the Banque du Liban provided sufficient information to allow A&M to initiate the forensic audit.”
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