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For over three hours on Monday, the parliamentary Finance and Budget Committee examined the preliminary report of the audit of Alvarez and Marsal, in the presence of caretaker Ministers of Finance Youssef Khalil, and Justice Henry Khoury, as well as the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon, Wassim Mansouri.
At the end of the session, Committee President Ibrahim Kanaan emphasized the need to complete this report, especially since “many elements need to be clarified due to the lack of access to all data and documents, in order to draw the necessary conclusions.” He stated, “What matters to us is to know where the money went, whether the deficit is $50 billion or $70 billion.”
Kanaan recalled that thirteen years ago, well before the financial collapse, he had sounded the alarm. “It was when we conducted the parliamentary audit of the state’s accounts and public finances,” he explained. “We had then announced most of the violations we are facing today.”
For Kanaan, the most important aspect remains determining the losses and responsibilities, finding a solution to the depositors’ problem, and knowing the assets of the banks and the state. “We have requested to complete this audit to include all aspects that the auditor could not capture,” Kanaan explained. “We have also requested a financial audit through an impartial international auditor who captures the assets of the banks and determines the state of bank deposits and assets. This has not been done so far and should have been carried out by successive governments since the 2019 crisis.”
“The interim governor of the central bank, Wassim Mansouri, affirmed to the committee that he was willing to cooperate with Alvarez and Marsal or the judiciary for any questions that may be posed to him, especially since Parliament has approved a law lifting banking secrecy in such cases,” Kanaan highlighted. “We understood that Mr. Mansouri began by submitting the requested information to the audit company and the judiciary.”
Regarding the gaps and irregularities, Kanaan noted that the control dossier had been handed over to the judiciary. Furthermore, “the Ministry of Finance issued a report in 2019 stating that funds were spent without accounting and without respect for laws and were not included in most of the Treasury’s accounts.”
According to the parliamentarian, it is necessary to extend the financial audit to ministries, departments, and state institutions, especially since the Alvarez report stated that “the central bank financed the failure and bankruptcy of the state.”
Kanaan also announced that the committee will hold a series of sessions starting next week, with the presence of Wassim Mansouri and the relevant ministers, to discuss reform laws, including restoring financial balance and restructuring banks.
Furthermore, Kanaan protested, “We have learned that the cost of auditing the bank’s assets amounts to $6 million, and the contract has not yet been signed and has been pushed aside. The government spent $1.125 billion of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) that Lebanon obtained from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) without consulting anyone.”
