The governor of the Banque du Liban Riad Salamé would have accused the private banks of having made disappear the deposits of the depositors by not having known how to manage the risks, indicates the newspaper Al Akhbar. These remarks were allegedly made during the meeting which took place at the Presidential Palace in Baabda.
The daily also accuses the governor of the central bank of not wanting to finance fuels and drugs despite the exceptional approval obtained from the President of the Republic and the government. It would thus require the adoption of a law in order to be able to mobilize the mandatory financial reserves of the Banque du Liban.
For the time being, Riad Salamé would also refuse to reveal the exact amounts of currencies available to the Banque du Liban. Faced with this information and following its demands, doubts about the real capacity of the Central Bank are more and more heard while the daily estimates that 80 billion dollars of depositors’ sums would have been spent without law. According to Al Akhbar, it would thus be a question of covering the embezzlement of these sums by a legislative framework under the pretext of being able to supply gasoline and medicines via the use of compulsory reserves and at the exchange rate of 3,900 LL / USD in the instead of 1,500 LL / USD.
For the time being, the governor of the Central Bank, if he agreed to provide the lines of credit necessary for the purchase of fuel, would not have agreed to do the same for Electricité du Liban.
Worse, Al Akhbar estimates, the Banque du Liban would no longer have the necessary sums to invest and more than 400 million dollars that could be mobilized. Fuels could only be subsidized up to $ 150 million every two weeks, he even said.
As for a question on what happened to the deposits, Riad Salamé would have clarified that the Banks are responsible for the investments that they would have made and that they would therefore have disappeared and without mentioning then the responsibility which is his as the supervisory authority of banking institutions, the banking supervisory commission or other regulatory bodies.
Al Akhbar also accuses the Bank of Lebanon of wanting to transform the state into a buyer of foreign currency on the local market on the pretext of repaying its public debts.
During the same meeting, a dispute between the figures of the Ministry of Health and the Bank of Lebanon would have even appeared at the level of the sums disbursed for imported drugs. If the health ministry mentions nearly $ 600 million in spending, Riad Salamé would only recognize $ 485 million in drug disapproval, believing that the difference would have been sold on the black market.
