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Beirut – “Al-Quds Al-Arabi”:
There is no indication that Banque du Liban intends to deliver the required information to Alvarez & Marsal in preparation for conducting a criminal audit of the bank’s accounts, in compliance with the contract signed between the company and the Ministry of Finance, especially because the governor of the Central Bank is armed with the banking and professional secrecy imposed by the Monetary and Credit Law. Ignore who signed the contract with the international company worth two million dollars.
In the context of pressure on Riad Salameh to hand over information subject to bank secrecy, Acting Prime Minister Hassan Diab made a series of contacts to follow up on the criminal audit file at the Banque du Liban, and also addressed a letter to the Minister of Finance. Finances to request the bank to act in accordance with the opinion of the Legislation and Consultation Commission, in order to start a business. Álvarez “works in accordance with the contract signed between it and the Lebanese state, which stipulates that the Banque du Liban will deliver to the company the documents and information it requested to start the criminal audit workshop, since the Central Bank only gave the company 42% of these files, citing the bank secrecy law.
According to a statement issued by the Diab Media Office, “The opinion of the Legislative Council determined the concept of bank secrecy and the suitability of the mission of the criminal audit firm designated by the Lebanese government to carry out the criminal audit of the accounts and activities of the Bank of Lebanon, with the provisions of the Banking Secrecy Law and the Monetary and Credit Law. The legislation explicitly establishes that, based on the Cabinet’s decision to conduct a criminal audit and assign the Minister of Finance to sign the contract with the company “Alvarez”, it is the duty of the interested parties to direct the implementation of the decision of the cabinet by allowing the company “Alvarez” to carry out its mission and deliver the documents requested while hiding the names of the clients. When necessary, replace them with numbers to preserve bank secrecy, keeping in mind that state accounts are not subject to bank secrecy.
The statement emphasized that “any reform that is not derived from criminal scrutiny in the Banque du Liban will be a false reform to cover the continuation of the approach that brought the country to its financial level. What is required today is that the Banque du Liban begin to deliver the documents and information required by the criminal audit firm, so that this audit begins to discover the financial facts and the causes of this collapse “, considering that” any attempt of obstructing the criminal audit is an association responsible for causing the suffering of the Lebanese financially and economically. The living. “
And he warned “against trying to overthrow criminal scrutiny to prevent the Lebanese from learning the truth about the background to the disappearance of their deposits, the reasons for the financial collapse and the deliberate manipulation of the price of the national currency.” He said: “This is a time between two stages, or we go through a true reform and fight against corruption workshop, or we continue on the path that led the country to the bottom of the abyss. God be witness that I gave the information. “
Diab’s statement was preceded by a campaign led by the Al-Akhbar newspaper against Riad Salameh, accusing him of “behaving as if the Banque du Liban were his personal estate, relying on its internal and external protection, and refusing to respond to the company that the Council of Ministers assigned to audit the bank’s accounts, ignoring the advice prepared by the Advisory Commission “. And the legislation of the Ministry of Justice, which confirmed that the Banque du Liban is obliged to implement the Cabinet decision that approved the criminal scrutiny.
She believed that “the fact that Salameh did not provide the required information to the auditing company is a clear and explicit statement that he is leading a state within a state,” adding: “What remains of the structure in the Lebanese state today it demands not only the removal of Riad Salameh, but also his trial. “
She concluded: “The interests of some of the political and financial forces that protect Salameh, starting with Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri, passing through the Speaker of Parliament, Nabih Berri, and ending with the Chairman of the Socialist Party, Walid Jumblatt, In addition to an army of businessmen, civil servants, bankers and clergymen, the question of Criminal scrutiny goes from being an inevitable, necessary and obvious subject to the requirement of a team, creating justifications to hide the truth.
In support of President Michel Aoun’s demand, the Free Patriotic Movement is organizing, on Wednesday afternoon, a symbolic movement in cars to insist on advancing the issue of criminal scrutiny and rejecting any obstruction in the Baabda region.
On the other hand, the coordinator of the “Rally for Sovereignty”, Nawfal Daou, tweeted on his Twitter account: “The bankruptcy of the treasury and the debts of Lebanon are not based on a decision of the Central Bank of Lebanon, but on laws and budgets proposed by the government and approved by the Parliament and implemented by the Ministry of Finance through transfers and checks signed by him ”and confirmed: He really wants to discover waste and corruption, so he should go to the Ministry of Finance, Funds and Advice, and put your accounts with the completion of the investigation, as the Banque du Liban did with its accounts.
According to a constitutional expert, the contract signed with the auditing company was issued by decree of the Council of Ministers, and when the decree collides with a law, the law prevails and, therefore, the governor of the Banque du Liban is legally protected by a legislative text superior to the decree.
On the other hand, the families of students studying outside Lebanon cut off the path to the Banque du Liban, to demand that banks transfer dollars to their children at foreign universities in compliance with the student dollar law recently passed by the Chamber of Commerce. Representatives.
