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Beirut – The question of Lebanon receiving international aid to save it from the unprecedented crisis that it has been experiencing for more than a year has become hostage to the solution of the problem of the criminal audit of the Central Bank’s accounts.
Lebanese President Michel Aoun stressed on Wednesday that the issue of the criminal audit of the accounts of the Banque du Liban is a national matter and the best way out of the country’s crisis.
Aoun wrote, after receiving the Acting Minister of Justice, Marie-Claude Najm, the tweets published by the account of the Lebanese Presidency on Twitter, in which he said: “Without solving the problem of criminal scrutiny (of the accounts of the Central Bank ), there can be no agreement either with the countries that want to help Lebanon or with the Fund. Similar International Monetary and Financial Institutions ”.
He added: “The issue of forensic auditing is a national issue par excellence, and the best way out of the crisis we are experiencing.”
The Lebanese president indicated that he wrote to Parliament about criminal scrutiny, with the aim of addressing this “great national tragedy.”
On Tuesday, the Lebanese president sent a message to Parliament, in which he indicated that the criminal audit of the accounts of the Central Bank of Lebanon is a necessity to get out of the list of countries that he described as “failed”.
The Lebanese Presidency believes that the criminal investigation will help assess financial losses and document the evidence and support of the judicial authorities in the process of legal accountability.
On Friday, the financial audit firm Álvarez and Messal decided to officially inform Lebanon of their withdrawal from the criminal audit trail of the Central Bank of Lebanon.
The international company justified its decision to withdraw by “not obtaining the required information and documents, and its uncertainty about reaching this information,” despite the extension of its work period for three more months.
Earlier this month, the company asked the Banque du Liban to hand over the remaining documents before the third of this month, after it had handed over only 42 percent of the required documents.
The Central Bank refused to send the remaining documents, as this “opposes” the Monetary and Credit Law that regulates the work of the Central Bank and bank secrecy, according to a source from the bank.
According to the Lebanese media, Lebanon will pay a fine of around 150,000 dollars for the termination of the agreement by Álvarez and Marsal.
The departure of the financial audit firm was greeted with French dissatisfaction with the performance of the Lebanese authorities, given that this file is at the forefront of the economic and financial reform priorities required in the French document.
The forensic audit of the Bank of Lebanon accounts is the most prominent element of the economic recovery plan that the government approved months ago to negotiate with the International Monetary Fund, as it was included in the terms of the roadmap drawn up by France to help Lebanon out of the cycle of economic collapse.
And scrutiny is a fundamental requirement of foreign donors and the International Monetary Fund, whose talks with the interim government have stalled due to lack of implementation of reforms.
On November 3, the head of the interim government at the time, Hassan Diab, demanded that the central bank hand over all the documents to the international auditing firm.
Diab considered that any attempt to obstruct the forensic audit, is classified as an association in the responsibility of causing the suffering of the Lebanese financially, economically and in life.
Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri, who was appointed to the post last month, is trying to form a government under the sectarian political system that governs the country to implement reforms that address Lebanon’s worst crisis.
For more than a year, Lebanon suffers from a serious economic crisis, the worst since the end of the civil war (1975-1990), which caused a financial collapse, as well as significant material losses suffered by the Central Bank.
