The criminal audit at the Banque du Liban collides with the...

Beirut – “Al-Quds Al-Arabi”:

There are no indications that the Banque du Liban intends to hand over the requested information to Alvarez & Marsal To conduct a forensic audit of bank accountsIn implementation of the contract signed between the company and the Ministry of Finance, especially since the governor of the Central Bank is armed with the banking and professional secrecy imposed by the Monetary and Credit Law, which was ignored by those who signed the contract with the international company worth two million dollars.

In the context of pressure on Riad Salameh to hand over information that is subject to banking secrecy, the caretaker prime minister, Hassan Diab, conducted a series of contacts to follow up the criminal audit file at the Banque du Liban, and also directed a letter to the Minister of Finance to request the bank to act according to the opinion of the Legislation and Consultation Commission, in order to start a company. Alvarez “operates according to the contract signed between it and the Lebanese state, which stipulates that the Banque du Liban shall deliver to the company the documents and information that it requested to launch the criminal audit workshop, as the Central Bank only handed over the company 42% of these files only, citing the banking secrecy law.

According to a statement issued by the Media Office of Diab, “The Legislative Council’s opinion determined the concept of banking secrecy, and the suitability of the mission of the criminal audit firm appointed by the Lebanese government to carry out the criminal audit of the Bank of Lebanon’s accounts and activities, with the provisions of the Banking Secrecy Law and the Monetary and Credit Law. Legislation explicitly states that, based on the cabinet’s decision to conduct a criminal audit and assign the Minister of Finance to sign the contract with the “Alvarez” company, it is the duty of the concerned parties to direct the implementation of the cabinet’s decision by enabling the company “Alvarez” to carry out its mission and deliver the documents required of them while withholding the names of customers When needed, and replace them with numbers in order to preserve banking secrecy, noting that state accounts are not subject to banking secrecy.

The statement emphasized that “any reform that does not stem from criminal scrutiny at the Banque du Liban is a sham reform to cover the continuation of the approach that brought the country to its financial level. What is required today is for the Banque du Liban to deliver the documents and information required by the forensic auditing company, so that this audit will start to uncover the financial facts and the causes of this collapse, ”considering that“ any attempt to obstruct the criminal audit is a partnership in responsibility for causing the suffering of the Lebanese on the financial and economic levels. The living. ”

And he warned “against trying to overthrow criminal scrutiny to prevent the Lebanese from knowing the truth about the backgrounds of 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 phases. Either we pass towards a real workshop for reform and combating corruption, or we continue on the road that brought the country to the bottom of the abyss. God witness that I delivered the information”.

Diab’s statement was preceded by a campaign led by Al-Akhbar newspaper on Riad Salameh, accusing him of “behaving as if the Banque du Liban is his personal farm, relying on its internal and external protection, and refuses to respond to the company that the Council of Ministers assigned to audit the bank’s accounts, ignoring the advice prepared by the Consultative Commission.” And legislation in the Ministry of Justice, which affirmed that the Banque du Liban is obligated to implement the Cabinet’s decision that approved criminal scrutiny.

She believed that “Salameh’s failure to deliver the required information to the auditing company is a clear and explicit declaration that he is leading a state within the state,” adding: “What remains of the structure in the Lebanese state today demands not only the dismissal of Riad Salameh, but his trial as well.”

She concluded: “The interests of some of the political and financial forces protecting Salamé, starting with Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri, passing through Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, and ending with Chairman of the Socialist Party Walid Jumblatt, in addition to an army of businessmen, officials, bankers and clerics, the issue of Criminal scrutiny is from an inevitable, necessary and obvious matter to the demand of one team, creating justifications to conceal the truth.

In support of the demand of President Michel Aoun, the Free Patriotic Movement is organizing, on Wednesday afternoon, a symbolic movement in cars to insist on moving forward on the issue of criminal scrutiny and to reject any obstruction in the Baabda region.

On the other hand, the coordinator of the “Rally for Sovereignty”, Naoufel Daou, tweeted on his Twitter account, “The treasury’s bankruptcy and Lebanon’s debts are not based on a decision by the Central Bank of Lebanon, but rather with laws and budgets proposed by the government, approved by Parliament, and implemented by the Ministry of Finance through transfers and checks signed by it.” He really wants to uncover waste and corruption, so he should go to the Ministry of Finance, Funds and Councils, and put their accounts with the conduct of the investigation, as the Banque du Liban did with its accounts.

According to a constitutional expert, the contract signed with the audit 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 covered by a legislative text higher than the decree.

On the other hand, the families of students studying outside Lebanon cut off the road to the Banque du Liban to demand with banks to transfer dollars to their children in foreign universities in compliance with the student dollar law recently approved by Parliament.