Le quotidien Nidaa Al-Watan a indiqué, dans son édition de ce mardi que le cabinet Alvarez & Marsal en charge de mener l’audit juricomptable des comptes de la Banque du Liban pourrait annoncer son retrait de la procédure d’ici 24 heures, la banque centrale refusant de lui fournir les informations nécessaires en dépit de la promesse du ministre des finances Youssef Khalil.
Cet audit est considéré comme un des éléments clés pour mener les négociations avec le Fonds Monétaire International en vue de débloquer l’aide de la communauté internationale alors que parallèlement, plusieurs enquêtes judiciaires ont été lancées à l’étranger à l’encontre du gouverneur de la Banque du Liban Riad Salamé, notamment en Suisse où il est accusé d’avoir détourné près de 300 millions de dollars de son établissement, ce que pourrait confirmer ou infirmer un audit juricomptable.
Ce dernier se défend de toute malversation, présentant la semaine dernière au premier ministre libanais, un audit “simple” de sa fortune mené par un cabinet local, Semaan et Ghoulam.
Par ailleurs, Riad Salamé a toujours démenti l’existence d’importantes pertes de la Banque Centrale, un audit simple de 2018 ayant été rendu public indiquant que ce dernier masquait ses pertes par la déclaration unilatérale d’importants profits fiduciaires.
As a reminder, the Banque du Liban has long refused the forensic audit of the accounts of the Banque du Liban and then a final report within the next 6 months, under the pretext of regulations related to banking secrecy.
Banque du Liban’s losses could be greater than expected, say observers and experts from the International Monetary Fund, due to unorthodox practices such as Governor Riad Salamé’s recourse to unilaterally declaring large fiduciary profits to cover losses of the public institution for years.
According to a confidential audit document but made public by anonymous sources, the governor of the Banque du Liban would have announced nearly 6 billion in fiduciary profits in 2018 alone to cover losses of 6 billion dollars, mainly related to financial engineering operations which began in 2016.
As a reminder, this audit is deemed necessary to unblock negotiations with the International Monetary Fund after the declaration of a state of default in March 2020. Lebanon then hoped to obtain aid of 10 billion dollars.
However, the negotiations, now suspended, quickly stumbled over the capacity of the Lebanese authorities to carry out the reforms necessary for the release of international aid as well as on the issue of quantifying the losses of the financial sector. The Lebanese authorities estimate that its losses would reach 241 trillion Lebanese pounds on the basis of an exchange rate of 3600 LL / USD. , that is to say approximately 80 billion dollars, which the local banks refuse via the association of the banks of Lebanon or the Bank of Lebanon itself. This situation could be further aggravated with the deterioration of exchange rates since 2021, the Lebanese pound having lost more than 90% of its value against the dollar on the black market.
Henceforth, this encryption of the accounts of the Banque du Liban should be carried out by the firms Alvarez & Marsal for the forensic audit and by KPMG and Oliver Wyman for the normal audit . First approached to conduct the forensic audit, the Kroll cabinet, specializing in the matter was dismissed following pressure from the president of the chamber Nabih Berri, considering the company linked to the Hebrew state .
Thunderclap, the firm of Alvarez & Marsal announces its withdrawal from the forensic audit procedure , November 20, 2020 after the Banque du Liban refused to answer 57% of the questions asked , under the pretext of the credit and currency code or even legislation related to banking secrecy, plunging Lebanon into uncertainty. Indeed, this audit is now considered essential for obtaining assistance from the international community. The Ministry of Finance or that of justice considered that the contract did not violate the texts in force.
In his speech on the occasion of the 77th commemoration of the independence of Lebanon, General Michel Aoun indicates that the procedure should nevertheless go to the end and therefore envisages recourse to parliament to force the Banque du Liban to comply while the governor of the Banque du Liban Riad Salamé would be in Paris in order, indicate some sources, to find an agreement with France, leader of the community international organization which remains intractable so far on the need to conduct a forensic audit of central bank accounts.
April 7, 2021, the President of the Republic General Michel Aoun publicly denounced the ill will of the Ministry of Finance Ghazi Wazni and the Governor of the Banque du Liban Riad Salamé without, however, directly naming them in the face of the various pitfalls and obstacles faced with the forensic audit of the Banque du Liban accounts and called for a meeting of the Hassan Diab government to examine this file and reveal the underside of what he almost describes. as a sabotage of the procedure.
The head of state also accused the governor of the Banque du Liban of practices contrary to local financial legislation, such as the use of private deposits as currency reserves. The President of the Republic recalled the various steps taken by certain parties to avoid this audit of the central bank. He also recalled that this procedure is not only a personal request of the Head of State but also of the international community, a prerequisite for the release of funds from CEDRE and the IMF.
In addition, in the face of the crisis, some correspondent banks of the BdL would have closed the accounts , indicates in a letter Riad Salamé.
Since then, Alvarez & Marsal has indicated that it is resuming the forensic audit process. On April 30, 2021, she indicated that she had received 95% of the answers to the questions asked so far . The remaining 5% were linked to private Lebanese banks but partly owned by the Banque du Liban, which would thus entrench itself under the cover of the banking secrecy law, which was nevertheless temporarily frozen by decision of Parliament for a period of time. eurobonds, some sources said at the time. For the time being, it is not known whether the cabinet has finally received these answers or not.
On September 1, the Presidency of the Republic signs the decree published by the Ministry of Finance allowing the financing and therefore the beginning of the procedures related to the forensic audit
On November 23, the Al Nidaa newspaper reveals that the cabinet is again considering withdrawing following the BoL’s persistent refusal to provide the necessary information as parliament considers a new bill to allow the lifting of banking secrecy until at the conclusion of the audit procedure.
