Lebanon: The Central Bank stresses the need for a forensic audit firm to carry out its business

Beirut - DPA: In a statement, the Banque du Liban stressed the need for the forensic auditing company to carry out its work, in response to the statement of the Presidency of the Republic, which announced that “accountability is coming in this field and that the judiciary is scheduled with it.” And the statement came “emphasis on the trend Positively in dealing with the audit process, the Banque du Liban stresses the need for Alvarez & Marcel to carry out its work, and to verify by itself the accuracy of the information uploaded to the main computer in the office designated for this purpose in the Ministry of Finance building. , that is, 9 months after the issuance of Law No. 200/2020) related to suspending the provisions of banking secrecy, the Minister of Finance provided the Bank of Lebanon with a copy of the amended contract dated 9/17/2021 signed with the company, and also asked the Bank of Lebanon to install the logistical equipment and programs And the Banque du Liban continued in its statement, “After receiving the above request, the Banque du Liban took the necessary measures to prepare and equip the necessary network, computers and programs, and conducted testing operations on them to ensure their readiness.” He also said, “On 10/21/2021.” The Banque du Liban By uploading the required information from the company to the main computer in the office designated for this purpose in the Ministry of Finance building, noting that about 900 megabytes of this information were downloaded.” He added, “On 11/11/2021, the Minister of Finance requested the Banque du Liban to express an opinion on a number of clarifications required from the the company about the information placed at its disposal. He explained that “on 12/6/2021, the Banque du Liban informed the Minister of Finance of its answers about the company’s additional observations and wished to start the audit process due to the delivery of all the documents required of it.” He indicated that “on 7/12/2021 the Central Council took a decision according to which it agreed to provide He declared that the Central Council “has agreed to re-extract the information that was previously downloaded on the main computer in the office designated for this purpose in the Ministry of Finance building in order to work on reorganizing it to conform completely with the required form of The company,” noting that this operation was carried out on December 28, 2021. He pointed out that “on January 21, 202 the Banque du Liban informed His Excellency the Minister of Finance of the answers of the Banque du Liban regarding the list of required information, hoping that the decision would be taken to initiate the audit. It is also worth noting. It also indicates that all decisions of the Central Council are communicated to the Minister of Finance through the Government Commissioner at the Banque du Liban.” To carry out the task of criminal investigation at the Banque du Liban. However, the Banque du Liban handed over to the company only some of the documents and information it requested, in order to conduct the criminal audit of the bank, due to the banking secrecy law adopted in Lebanon. The House of Representatives, in its session held on December 21, 2020, approved the suspension of banking secrecy for a period of one year.