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Days after the Lebanese parliament recommended that criminal scrutiny be circulated on the accounts of state institutions and the central bank, Acting Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni sent a letter to Banque du Liban Governor Riad Salameh, requesting the implementation of the parliament’s decision in accordance with the law.
The text of the book addressed to Salameh said: “We want you to implement the decision of the House of Representatives and submit all the accounts of the public administration to forensic accounting scrutiny, in accordance with the laws and regulations in force and with the preservation of the rights of the been anywhere ”.
The Lebanese parliament approved a recommendation to subject the accounts of the Banque du Liban, ministries, independent interests, councils, funds and public institutions, in parallel, to criminal scrutiny without any hindrance or by invoking bank or bank secrecy. other type ”, during a public session held based on a letter sent by President Michel Aoun to Parliament to cooperate with the authority Procedure so that the state can carry out a forensic financial audit of BDL’s accounts.
Aoun’s message came after the withdrawal of the consulting firm Álvarez y Marsal from an agreement signed with the Lebanese government to review and audit the accounts of the Central Bank: “Due to insufficient provision of information,” which made it “unable to complete its review “, after Banque du Liban refused to release the data considering The bank secrecy law prohibits this, requiring a letter from the Ministry of Finance to be sent to the Banque du Liban requesting the lifting of bank secrecy on state accounts .
A source in the Finance Ministry told Al-Sharq Al-Awsat that the book addressed to the governor of the Banque du Liban is “morally binding and not legally binding”, indicating that “public administration accounts are not subject to to bank secrecy “.
The source confirmed that the government is determined to follow up on the implementation of the financial audit, and that the Minister of Finance, within the next two days, will send a letter to Álvarez and Marsal in this regard.
The book that the Minister of Finance directed to the Governor of the Banque du Liban is supposed to remove the obstacles that prevented Álvarez from completing his work, since former Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar believes that “the book is binding” because “the moral obligation it becomes a binding obligation at the beginning of the implementation ”. The implementation of the decision of the House of Representatives, which in turn is binding, begins, considering in a statement to Al-Sharq al-Awsat that the time has come to put aside “descriptions that may evade submitting accounts to scrutiny” .
Najjar notes that the use of the word “we wish” in the book comes from the door of public speaking and does not mean no obligation, noting that the book also shows coordination between the executive authority, just as there was cooperation between Aoun and Berri in the subject of the message and then the session and recommendation.
Najjar explains that after this book, it remains for the Central Board of the Banque du Liban to announce its response to the book, which is expected, and adds that before the book the Bank of Lebanon was governed by banking secrecy, and today the situation is different, since bank secrecy does not apply when the person concerned requests the disclosure of their account. The Ministry of Finance has the right to disclose your private accounts, and this never violates bank secrecy, as it is the owner of the relationship.
Aoun announced during a meeting yesterday, with the Ambassador of the European Union in Lebanon Ralph Tarraf, the Deputy Special Coordinator of the United Nations in Lebanon Najat Rushdie and the Regional Director of the Department of Levante at the World Bank Saruj Kumar Jah that the criminal audit it will allow to know “every dollar spent or will be spent in Lebanon. It achieves the credibility of the state before the international community, especially donor countries.
It is noteworthy that the criminal financial audit is a matter of negotiation between the Lebanese government and the International Monetary Fund, and within the conditions of its recent status, in order to advance along the path of economic and financial reform.
For his part, the head of the Lebanese Forces Party, Samir Geagea, stressed that “without conducting the audit there will be no reform process or contact with the IMF.” And Geagea considered yesterday in a press conference that “the interim prime minister, Hassan Diab, should ask the finance minister to reconnect with the company (Álvarez) quickly or to agree with a new company, as well as request the governor of the Banque du Liban, in a written letter, to deliver all the necessary data for the audit to the Minister of Finance ”. .
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