One-time freezing of banking secrecy?

Attempts to rescue the criminal scrutiny of the accounts of the Banque du Liban are continuing by the presidencies of the Republic and the government, but neither of them guarantees a change of fate imposed by Riad Salameh, under the pretext of banking secrecy. Yesterday, the President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, reaffirmed “the necessity for the government to undertake a financial criminal audit of the Bank of Lebanon’s accounts,” noting the importance of this step in the field of reforms necessary to deal with the financial and economic conditions in the country.Therefore, James Daniel, the head of the forensic audit team from the Alvarez and Marsal company, received the Minister of Finance Ghazi Wazni, Governor of the Banque du Liban, and the former Minister Salim Jreissati. The circumstances that prevented the company from conducting the criminal and financial audit of the accounts of Lebanon bank. It was decided at the meeting to “extend the period required to deliver the necessary documents to the company for an additional three months, provided that, during the specified period, some documents that have not yet been delivered will be delivered.” According to a legal study, it was found that this change in the time limits does not require an amendment to the contract, because it does not affect its content. Rather, it is sufficient for the Minister of Finance to send a request to do so to the company, which as soon as it approves the request until it becomes effective.

(Haitham Al-Mousawi)

After the meeting, Wazni was asked about how to overcome the issue of banking secrecy, and he said that the opinion of the Legislation and Consultation Authority could be used in this field. Also, “Communication with the Banque du Liban showed more and more willingness to deal with this issue.”
The discussion moved to the Serail in the afternoon. President Hassan Diab chaired a meeting attended by Daniel Wozni and Salameh, Ministers Zina Aker and Marie Claude Negm, and former Minister Naji Boustany.
The meeting witnessed a heated discussion, during which Salameh reiterated that his refusal to deliver the documents required from the company was due to a problem in the contract, due to bank secrecy, and therefore it must be amended because the Banque du Liban is obligated to abide by it. On the other hand, Najm reiterated that the Banque du Liban is obligated to implement the cabinet decision.
In the face of Salame’s obtaining the support of the Central Council in its endeavor to distinguish between the accounts of the Banque du Liban and the accounts of the Lebanese state, which it considers that it needs a request to lift banking secrecy, Al-Akhbar learned that the Presidency of the Government had asked Al-Bustani to prepare a draft law suspending banking secrecy for one time in the interest of a company Alvarez »to carry out a forensic audit. But no one knew how such a project could make its way to the House of Representatives. Despite the possibility of an exceptional meeting of the Council of Ministers to approve the transfer of the bill to the House of Representatives, the matter has not yet been settled. A meeting of this kind puts on the table all the exceptional decisions that were signed by the presidents of the republic and the government. The answer to the question about the reason for proceeding with these decisions requires as long as the council can be held. On the other hand, ignoring the idea of ​​holding the session leads to the issuance of the draft by an exceptional decision and transferring it to the House of Representatives, which is expected that Speaker Nabih Berri will not agree to it, given his legal violation.
After the meeting, Najm said, “The governor of the Banque du Liban should implement the government’s decision, and if he refuses, he must present an official justification to the government and the public opinion about the reasons that lead him to do so.” She mentioned that “the reason for the criminal audit is that there is a big gap in the accounts of the Banque du Liban, and we want to know where the Lebanese deposits in banks have gone.”

Authoring is disabled
Governmentally, yesterday, similar to the days after the President’s meeting with the President-designate at the beginning of the week, was outside the writing period. No communication took place between the concerned parties, amid informed sources confirming that the President-designate froze all consultations “perhaps pending clarity on the outcome of the US elections.”
According to follow-up sources, the main node is the Ministry of Energy node that the Free Patriotic Movement adheres to, in exchange for Saad Hariri’s insistence that he be a partner in naming. This knot led to the collapse of all previous agreements, including the rotation. After it was agreed that the foreign ministry would be from the share of the Sunnis, and the interior and defense would be part of the Christians’ share, Hariri returned to request the interior.
On the other hand, and with the strong Lebanese bloc asserting that it does not interfere in the composition, sources familiar with the authoring negotiations considered that the main knot today lies in Hariri raising the slogan “I am my name the ministers” … But, “It seems that not all the ministers are. Christians exclusively ”, despite his previous agreement with President Aoun that the issue of naming them be left to the latter, as the Christian names he put forward“ are either close to him or their relationship is not good with the current represented by the President of the Republic, ”not to mention that most of the names presented“ strike the idea of ​​jurisdiction, Whether in terms of the lack of competence of some ministers with the bags that he named them, or in terms of combining unrelated bags that you collect.

Hariri does not have Shiite and Druze names and does not disclose Sunni names, and he asks the President to reach an understanding with him on Christian names

According to the information, Hariri asked Aoun in their last meeting that an employee of the “Booz Allen Hamilton” company, Charles Al-Hajj, take over the interior portfolio, after he had previously named Nicolas Haber to this ministry. He also named the head of the Maronite Foundation for Expansion, Charles George Hajj, to take over another portfolio, noting that he had put forward the name of the head of the renewable energy department at Bank Audi, Carol Ayat, to take over the energy portfolio. The sources reported that the President of the Republic asked the President-designate about the rest of the names, and he replied that the Shiite names did not yet exist, and the same applies to the name that will be presented by the former MP Suleiman Franjieh. The sources added that the list of names presented by Hariri included a Druze close to former MP Walid Jumblatt, while all the Sunni names are “from his group” and “some of them appointed him to state jobs.”
The sources go to accuse Hariri of seeking to turn the clock back to before 2005, when the active Christian forces had no say in naming the Christian ministers. She asked: What right does Hariri want to participate in naming all Christian ministers, excluding the ministers of other sects? He does not have Shiite or Druze names, and he refuses to divulge Sunni names, but he asks the president to reach an understanding with him about Christian names.
The source says that the so-called Christian knot is, in fact, expressing the desire of some to evoke Rustam Ghazali. He adds: No one is able to go beyond the constitutional stipulation that the president is a co-author and not a mailbox, as is the case in the assignment. Accordingly, it is no longer acceptable to call the constitutional authority the president enjoys the “Christian knot.”

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