The President of Lebanon: We continue to deliver to the Central Bank the documents necessary to conduct a criminal audit

Lebanese President Michel Aoun said that he is closely following the details of the process, which will be launched within a few days, by handing over to the Central Bank of Lebanon the documents required for conducting the criminal financial audit of the Central Bank's accounts.

Aoun added, in a statement today,: "There is a distance of days that separate us from the entitlement to hand over documents and documents by the Central Bank of Lebanon to the company in charge of conducting the criminal financial audit ... We and the Lebanese people monitor this matter."

The Central Bank of Lebanon had recently announced its commitment to cooperate with Alvarez and Misal, which will be tasked with conducting the criminal financial audit of the Central Bank's accounts, pursuant to the provisions of the law to suspend work according to the provisions of the bank secrecy law for a period of one year in connection with the anticipated criminal audit of the accounts of the Central Bank and the public administrations of the Lebanese state. .

In December of last year, the Lebanese Parliament approved a law proposal to lift banking secrecy from everyone who holds a public position in the Central Bank of Lebanon and the ministries and public administrations of the state for a year, in connection with the anticipated criminal audit of the accounts of the Central Bank, as part of efforts aimed at uncovering corruption and wasting public money. And fight it.

Lebanon previously contracted with Alvarez and Marsal to conduct a criminal audit of the accounts of the Central Bank of Lebanon, but the provisions of banking secrecy stipulated by law prevented the company from submitting the necessary documents and information to the company and then withdrawing it due to its inability to fulfill its mission.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun and his political team (the Free Patriotic Movement) mainly adopt the issue of conducting a financial criminal audit in the accounts of the Central Bank, considering that this procedure would expose aspects of corruption and waste of public money and the causes of the loss of the Lebanese depositors ’savings and funds in the Lebanese banking sector.

The idea of ​​a criminal audit of the accounts of the Central Bank of Lebanon came after a major dispute erupted between the government of Prime Minister Hassan Diab on the one hand and the Central Bank of Lebanon on the other hand, regarding the deficit figures and calculating financial losses during initial negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, where the numbers differed and varied greatly between the plan Financial and economic recovery set by the government, and the figures provided by the Central Bank.